Mahabharata — Ashvamedhika Parva, Shloka 17

Devanagari script

निहत्य पृथिवीपालान्‌ सहस्रशतसंघश:

Transliteration

nihatya pṛthivīpālān sahasraśatasaṅghaśaḥ

Translation

毗舍波耶那说：在成百上千、成千上万地斩杀大地诸王之后，（他/他们）仍继续前行——这是一幅压倒性的征服图景，也更凸显了以大规模杀戮换来的胜利所背负的阴沉道德重负。

Word by Word

• निहत्य: having slain
• Type: Verb
• Root: नि-हन् (धातु: हन्)
• Form: क्त्वा (ल्यप्), कर्तरि, अव्यय (absolutive)

• पृथिवीपालान्: kings (protectors of the earth)
• पृथिवीपालान्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: पृथिवीपाल
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Plural

• सहस्रशतसंघशः: in groups of hundreds and thousands; by hundreds and thousands
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: सहस्र-शत-सम्घशस्
• Form: अव्यय (शस्-प्रत्ययान्त अव्यय)

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vaiśampāyana
• pṛthivīpālāḥ (kings/rulers of the earth)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The line highlights the scale of warfare and conquest and implicitly raises the ethical burden of kingship: victory and political order often come at the cost of immense bloodshed, inviting reflection on dharma, restraint, and the consequences of violence.

What is happening in the narrative?

The narrator describes a campaign or sequence of battles in which numerous kings are killed in large numbers—"by hundreds and thousands"—conveying the magnitude of conflict within the Ashvamedhika Parva’s post-war political consolidation.