तयोर् युद्धम् अभूद् राजन् दिनार्धं चित्रम् अद्भुतम् ॥
बाहुयुद्धं सुबलिनोः शक्रप्रह्रादयोर् इव ॥
शिनिना सोमदत्तस् तु प्रसह्य भुवि पातितः ॥
असिम् उद्यम्य केशेषु प्रगृह्य च पदा हतः ॥
मध्ये राजसहस्राणां प्रेक्षकाणां समन्ततः ॥
कृपया च पुनस् तेन जीवेति स विसर्जितः ॥
tayor yuddham abhūd rājan dinārdhaṃ citram adbhutam ||
bāhuyuddhaṃ subalinoḥ śakraprahrādayor iva ||
śininā somadattas tu prasahya bhuvi pātitaḥ ||
asim udyamya keśeṣu pragṛhya ca padā hataḥ ||
madhye rājasahasrāṇāṃ prekṣakāṇāṃ samantataḥ ||
kṛpayā ca punas tena jīveti sa visarjitaḥ ||
"Between those two, o king, there was a battle lasting half a day, marvelous and wondrous — a hand-to-hand combat of two mighty men, as if of Shakra and Prahrada. Somadatta was felled to the ground by force by Shini; raising his sword, seizing him by the hair, [Shini] struck him with his foot in the midst of thousands of kings watching from all sides; and then, out of pity, he was released with the word 'live!'"
4d1186f077f2 · publicado 19 jul 2026, 16:25:13 UTC
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Having conquered, Shini spares him — "live!": victory is crowned with mercy, not with the finishing blow. It is telling that the humiliation by the foot before thousands is precisely the offense Somadatta will not forgive. The verse teaches that a victor's mercy can itself breed enmity if it is darkened by the disgrace of the defeated; and pardon joined with humiliation leaves behind not gratitude but a thirst for revenge — a lesson that one must spare without humiliating.