Shloka 19
Sauptika Parva, Adhyaya 8 — Dhṛṣṭadyumna-vadha and the Camp’s Nocturnal Rout
तुदन्नखैस्तु स द्रौ्णिं नातिव्यक्तमुदाहरत्
tudann akhais tu sa drauṇiṁ nātivyaktam udāharat | “manuṣyeṣu śreṣṭha ācāryaputra! adya vilambaṁ mā kṛthāḥ | māṁ kenacid astrena jahi, yena tava hetunāhaṁ puṇyalokān gamiṣyāmi” ||
Sinabi ni Sanjaya: Habang kinakamot niya ng mga kuko ang anak ni Droṇa, nagsalita siya sa paos at malabong tinig: “O pinakamainam sa mga tao, o anak ng guro! Huwag nang mag-atubili. Patayin mo ako sa pamamagitan ng alinmang sandata, upang sa pamamagitan mo’y makaalis ako tungo sa mga daigdig na nakakamit sa kabutihan.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the moral tension around killing: the speaker frames death by another’s hand as a means to reach ‘worlds of merit,’ revealing how, amid war, ethical reasoning can be distorted by desperation and by beliefs about agency, sin, and posthumous destiny.
In the Sauptika episode’s aftermath, a distressed figure addresses Drauṇi (Aśvatthāman), clawing at him and pleading to be killed quickly with a weapon, claiming that death caused by Drauṇi would enable him to attain meritorious heavenly realms.