Абхиманью
ततो दौःशासनिं कार्ष्णिर् विद्ध्वा सप्तभिर् आशुगैः ॥
संरम्भाद् रक्तनयनो वाक्यम् उच्चैर् अथाब्रवीत् ॥
पिता तवाहवं त्यक्त्वा गतः कापुरुषो यथा ॥
दिष्ट्या त्वम् अपि जानीषे योद्धुं न त्व् अद्य मोक्ष्यसे ॥
एतावद् उक्त्वा वचनं कर्मारपरिमार्जितम् ॥
नाराचं विससर्जास्मै तं द्रौणिस् त्रिभिर् आच्छिनत् ॥
tato dauḥśāsaniṃ kārṣṇir viddhvā saptabhir āśugaiḥ ||
saṃrambhād raktanayano vākyam uccair athābravīt ||
pitā tavāhavaṃ tyaktvā gataḥ kāpuruṣo yathā ||
diṣṭyā tvam api jānīṣe yoddhuṃ na tv adya mokṣyase ||
etāvad uktvā vacanaṃ karmāraparimārjitam ||
nārācaṃ visasarjāsmai taṃ drauṇis tribhir ācchinat ||
Then the son of Krishna [Subhadra], having wounded the son of Duhshasana with seven swift arrows, his eyes red with blood from wrath, spoke at the top of his voice: "Your father, abandoning the battle, fled like a coward. Fortunately, you at least know how to fight; but today you will not escape." Having spoken these words, he loosed at him a narācha arrow honed by a smith; the son of Drona intercepted it with three arrows.
402976b20a03 · published Jul 19, 2026, 3:30:04 PM UTC
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Abhimanyu reproaches the son of Duhshasana with his father's disgrace, who fled before him: "your father fled like a coward." In his words there is no malice, but a rebuke of wrongdoing, for Duhshasana was among the foremost tormentors of Draupadi. There is bitter irony here: it is precisely the son of this coward who, unable to overcome the youth by honest means, will finish him off by numbers. It is telling that the youth boldly foretells, "today you will not escape" — yet he himself does not know his own fate. The verse teaches that a rebuke of cowardice is just, but fate is fickle, and one who foretells another's death has no power over his own hour; that the youth's valor is genuine, and his threat is honest — he speaks it to the face, not from ambush; and that the tradition, contrasting Abhimanyu's honest challenge with the coming lawlessness of his killers, exposes in advance: the righteous one will perish at the hands of the unrighteous, who have nothing to boast of but their numbers.