बहूनि तव सैन्यानि योधाश् च बहवस् तथा ॥
न तथा पाण्डुपुत्राणाम् एवं युद्धम् अवर्तत ॥
तैर् अल्पैर् बहवो यूयं क्षयं नीताः प्रहारिणः ॥
शङ्के दैवस्य तत् कर्म पौरुषं येन नाशितम् ॥
संजय उवाच
एवं संभाषमाणानां बहु तत् तज् जनाधिप ॥
पाण्डवानाम् अनीकानि समदृश्यन्त संयुगे ॥
ततः प्रववृते युद्धं व्यतिषक्तरथद्विपम् ॥
तावकानां परैः सार्धं राजन् दुर्मन्त्रिते तव ॥
bahūni tava sainyāni yodhāś ca bahavas tathā ||
na tathā pāṇḍuputrāṇām evaṃ yuddham avartata ||
tair alpair bahavo yūyaṃ kṣayaṃ nītāḥ prahāriṇaḥ ||
śaṅke daivasya tat karma pauruṣaṃ yena nāśitam ||
saṃjaya uvāca
evaṃ saṃbhāṣamāṇānāṃ bahu tat taj janādhipa ||
pāṇḍavānām anīkāni samadṛśyanta saṃyuge ||
tataḥ pravavṛte yuddhaṃ vyatiṣaktarathadvipam ||
tāvakānāṃ paraiḥ sārdhaṃ rājan durmantrite tava ||
'Numerous are your hosts, and warriors are many as well, not so with the sons of Pandu; [yet] so the fight went. By those few, many of you, though strikers, were brought to destruction; I suspect that deed to be fate's, by which our manly valor was destroyed.' While they spoke thus, much of this and that, O lord of men, the hosts of the Pandavas appeared in the encounter. Then the battle broke out, with chariots and elephants intermingled, your warriors with the enemies, O king, through your evil counsel.
0a08093c0503 · published Jul 19, 2026, 4:31:38 PM UTC
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Karna marvels that the few overcome the many — in this he sees the hand of fate. It is telling that Sanjaya again closes the speech with a rebuke: 'through your evil counsel' — even a discourse on fate does not remove the guilt of the one who set the unjust cause in motion. The verse teaches that appeal to fate does not absolve the one who unleashed wrongdoing; and though the righteous few prevail over the unrighteous many as if by fate, the root of their triumph lies in righteousness, not blind chance.