प्रमृद्य तरसा राष्ट्रं पुरं ते मृदितं मया ॥
प्राप्य जीवन् रिपुवशं सखिपूर्वं किम् इष्यते ॥
एवम् उक्त्वा प्रहस्यैनं निश्चित्य पुनर् अब्रवीत् ॥
मा भैः प्राणभयाद् राजन् क्षमिणो ब्राह्मणा वयम् ॥
आश्रमे क्रीडितं यत् तु त्वया बाल्ये मया सह ॥
तेन संवर्धितः स्नेहस् त्वया मे क्षत्रियर्षभ ॥
pramṛdya tarasā rāṣṭraṃ puraṃ te mṛditaṃ mayā ||
prāpya jīvan ripuvaśaṃ sakhipūrvaṃ kim iṣyate ||
evam uktvā prahasyainaṃ niścitya punar abravīt ||
mā bhaiḥ prāṇabhayād rājan kṣamiṇo brāhmaṇā vayam ||
āśrame krīḍitaṃ yat tu tvayā bālye mayā saha ||
tena saṃvardhitaḥ snehas tvayā me kṣatriyarṣabha ||
Drona said: 'Having swiftly crushed your kingdom, I have destroyed your city; now that you find yourself alive in your enemy's power, what use is there in recalling our old friendship?' Having said this and smiled, and having resolved on something else, he spoke to him again: 'Do not fear for your life, O king; we brahmins bear no lasting grudge. But because in childhood you played with me in the hermitage, an affection for you has grown in me, O bull among kshatriyas.'
6c49fa0ea163 · publicado 12 jul 2026, 16:53:33 UTC
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Here Drona hands Drupada back his own haughty words — and in this lies a bitter triumph. Tellingly, he repeats almost verbatim Drupada's former rebuff ('what use is our old friendship?'): his revenge lies not only in the captivity but in forcing the one who wronged him to drink from his own cup. What emerges here is that even avenged injury does not elevate but merely repeats the evil done. Yet the phrase 'we brahmins bear no lasting grudge' is telling too: Drona lays claim to forgiveness — but the claim is ambiguous, for his very act of revenge refutes it. Here lies the flaw of counterfeit forgiveness: true forgiveness does not humiliate before it forgives, whereas Drona first crushed and mocked, and only then 'forgave.' Scripture thus subtly lays bare the difference between genuine forgiveness and the forgiveness of wounded pride dressed up as magnanimity.