अध्यर्धमात्रे धनुषां सहस्रे तनयस् तव ॥
अग्रतः सर्वसैन्यानां स्थित्वा दुर्मर्षणो ऽब्रवीत् ॥
अद्य गाण्डीवधन्वानं तपन्तं युद्धदुर्मदम् ॥
अहम् आवारयिष्यामि वेलेव मकरालयम् ॥
अद्य पश्यन्तु संग्रामे धनंजयम् अमर्षणम् ॥
विषक्तं मयि दुर्धर्षम् अश्मकूटम् इवाश्मनि ॥
adhyardhamātre dhanuṣāṃ sahasre tanayas tava ||
agrataḥ sarvasainyānāṃ sthitvā durmarṣaṇo 'bravīt ||
adya gāṇḍīvadhanvānaṃ tapantaṃ yuddhadurmadam ||
aham āvārayiṣyāmi veleva makarālayam ||
adya paśyantu saṃgrāme dhanaṃjayam amarṣaṇam ||
viṣaktaṃ mayi durdharṣam aśmakūṭam ivāśmani ||
With fifteen hundred archers, your son, standing ahead of all the armies, Durmarshana said: 'Now I shall hold back the wielder of Gandiva, scorching, furious in battle, as the shore holds back the ocean. Now let them see in battle how the unrestrainable Dhananjaya, unconquerable, becomes stuck fast upon me, like a stone hammer against stone.'
ea6cef8c7bba · published Jul 19, 2026, 3:45:02 PM UTC
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Durmarshana boasts with the image "velā iva makarālayam," "as the shore holds the ocean" — as though he could restrain Arjuna as land restrains the sea. But this self-assurance will turn to dust. It is significant that the one who boasts of standing "aśmakūṭam iva aśmani," as stone against stone, does not know that he himself is but a grain of sand before the wave. The verse teaches that boasting unmatched to the true strength of an opponent is the blindness of pride: one who alone volunteers to hold back the flood of righteous retribution likens himself to a shore, but falls like sand before the tide, for he measured himself not by truth but by arrogance.