शत्रुंजयं चन्द्रकेतुं मेघवेगं सुवर्चसम् ॥
सूर्यभासं च पञ्चैतान् हत्वा विव्याध सौबलम् ॥
तं सौबलस् त्रिभिर् विद्ध्वा दुर्योधनम् अथाब्रवीत् ॥
सर्व एनं प्रमथ्नीमः पुरैकैकं हिनस्ति नः ॥
अथाब्रवीत् तदा द्रोणं कर्णो वैकर्तनो वृषा ॥
पुरा सर्वान् प्रमथ्नाति ब्रूह्य् अस्य वधम् आशु नः ॥
śatruṃjayaṃ candraketuṃ meghavegaṃ suvarcasam ||
sūryabhāsaṃ ca pañcaitān hatvā vivyādha saubalam ||
taṃ saubalas tribhir viddhvā duryodhanam athābravīt ||
sarva enaṃ pramathnīmaḥ puraikaikaṃ hinasti naḥ ||
athābravīt tadā droṇaṃ karṇo vaikartano vṛṣā ||
purā sarvān pramathnāti brūhy asya vadham āśu naḥ ||
Having slain these five — Shatrunjaya, Chandraketu, Meghavega, Suvarchas, and Suryabhasa — he wounded the son of Subala. The son of Subala [Shakuni], having pierced him with three arrows, then spoke to Duryodhana: "Let us all crush him together, before he destroys us one by one."
10971cf0a946 · published Jul 19, 2026, 3:30:04 PM UTC
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Shakuni — the master of deceit, the one whose crooked game set the war in motion — is the first to propose the thought of a killing by numbers: "let us all crush him together." Thus the instigator of wrong is true to himself even here: where honor cannot prevail, there one falls upon the foe with numbers. It is telling that the proposal to kill one man with many comes precisely from Shakuni. The verse teaches that wrongdoing, powerless in honest battle, naturally inclines toward the lawlessness of numbers; that the deceitful man, unable to win, devises how to overcome by a mob; and that at the root of this crime too — the killing of the youth by six — stands the same dark thought of Shakuni that wove the crooked game — for one wrong begets another, and he who sowed discord reaps blood.