युधामन्युश्च विक्रान्त उत्तमौजाश्च वीर्यवान्। सौभद्रो द्रौपदेयाश्च सर्व एव महारथाः॥
yudhāmanyuś ca vikrānta uttamaujāś ca vīryavān / saubhadro draupadeyāś ca sarva eva mahārathāḥ
Even Arjuna's own sons are in this army — the personal stakes deepen.
Word by word (4)
- yudhāmanyuḥ ca vikrāntaḥ
- — the valiant Yudhamanyu
- uttamaujāḥ ca vīryavān
- — and the powerful Uttamauja
- saubhadraḥ draupadeyāḥ ca
- — the son of Subhadra (Abhimanyu) and the sons of Draupadi · 'Saubhadra' — son of Subhadra, Arjuna's own son Abhimanyu, who will die heroically. His presence here makes Arjuna's grief more poignant.
- sarve eva mahā-rathāḥ
- — all of them great chariot-warriors · 'Mahā-ratha' — a warrior capable of fighting 10,000 simultaneously. The Pandava side is not weak; this is a matched contest.
Also here are Yudhamanyu (the brave), Uttamaujas (the powerful), Abhimanyu (son of Arjuna and Subhadra), and the five sons of Draupadi — all great chariot warriors.
A modern analogy
Duryodhana realizes the opposing team includes not just rivals but the next generation — Arjuna's own son fights on the same side. This means the stakes extend beyond this moment into the future.
Take with you
- What we build or destroy today has consequences for those who come after us — Arjuna's son is in this battle.
- The personal dimension of any conflict adds layers of meaning that pure strategy cannot contain.
The mention of 'saubhadraḥ' — Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna and Subhadra (Krishna's sister) — adds a deeply personal dimension. Abhimanyu was famously taught the chakravyuha formation while still in the womb, when Arjuna was telling Subhadra how to enter it (but fell asleep before explaining how to exit). This story, told elsewhere in the Mahabharata, means Abhimanyu will die tragically in the battle — he could enter the formation but not escape it. The draupadeyāḥ — the five sons of Draupadi, one from each of the five Pandava brothers — also die in the war. The battle Arjuna is about to refuse to fight will kill his own son and grandsons. This is part of what overwhelms him in the verses to come.
Modern parallels
In many historical and family conflicts, it is the children and grandchildren who bear the heaviest consequences of decisions made by the generation before them. The awareness of this fact — that our choices shape those who come after — is one of the most powerful moral motivators human beings experience.
Public-domain translations (2) compare all →
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
He looked — and saw everyone he has ever loved, lined up to kill or be killed.
What is a kingdom for, if all those you wanted to share it with are dead?
Even the fathers-in-law and dearest friends — on both sides. No one is safely 'other.'
In the new birth, one recovers the former body's intelligence — and strives even more than before toward perfection.
Past practice carries the yogi forward involuntarily — even the yoga-inquirer surpasses the Vedic ritualist.
Those whose sin has ended — virtuous in deed, freed from dvandva-delusion — worship Me with firm resolve.