वचनाद् अथ कृष्णस् तु प्रययौ सव्यसाचिनः ॥
दार्यते भगदत्तेन यत्र पाण्डववाहिनी ॥
तं प्रयान्तं ततः पश्चाद् आह्वयन्तो महारथाः ॥
संशप्तकाः समारोहन् सहस्राणि चतुर्दश ॥
दशैव तु सहस्राणि त्रिगर्तानां नराधिप ॥
चत्वारि तु सहस्राणि वासुदेवस्य ये ऽनुगाः ॥
vacanād atha kṛṣṇas tu prayayau savyasācinaḥ ||
dāryate bhagadattena yatra pāṇḍavavāhinī ||
taṃ prayāntaṃ tataḥ paścād āhvayanto mahārathāḥ ||
saṃśaptakāḥ samārohan sahasrāṇi caturdaśa ||
daśaiva tu sahasrāṇi trigartānāṃ narādhipa ||
catvāri tu sahasrāṇi vāsudevasya ye 'nugāḥ ||
At the word of Savyasachin, Krishna then set out to where the army of the Pandavas was being crushed by Bhagadatta. Him, having set out [there], then the great chariot-warriors, the Samshaptakas, calling out to battle, set off in pursuit — fourteen thousand. Of them, ten thousand were Trigartas, O sovereign, and four thousand were the followers of Vasudeva.
1e0249a88d77 · published Jul 19, 2026, 3:11:21 PM UTC
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No sooner has Arjuna rushed to the army's rescue than the Samshaptakas call him back — such was their design: to bind him, to keep him from coming to its aid. Having bound themselves by an oath to kill or die, they fulfill their role as bait, drawing the guardian away. It is notable that among them are four thousand 'followers of Vasudeva' — those once called servants of Krishna, now fighting against His friend. The verse teaches that fidelity to the letter of a vow without fidelity to its spirit leads into a dead end: the Samshaptakas are honest in their oath, but they have given that honesty to an unrighteous cause; that former closeness to the sacred does not preserve one from falling if its spirit is abandoned; and that the name 'servant' means nothing in itself when one's deeds are turned against the very one whom one serves in name only.