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” ||
三阇耶说道：他用指甲抓挠着德罗那之子，以含混低哑的声音说道：“噢，人中最胜者，噢，师长之子！此刻莫再迟延。用某种兵刃杀了我，使我因你之故，得以离去，往赴功德之界。”
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.