1.9

Sanskrit

अन्ये च बहवः शूरा मदर्थे त्यक्तजीविताः । नानाशस्त्रप्रहरणाः सर्वे युद्धविशारदाः ॥

anye ca bahavaḥ śūrā madarthe tyaktajīvitāḥ nānāśastrapraharaṇāḥ sarve yuddhaviśāradāḥ

Translation

And many others, heroes, for my sake renouncing their lives, with diverse weapons and missiles, and all well-skilled in war.

Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain

Explanation

Duryodhana closes the roster with an open-ended “many others,” each ready to give up their life “for my sake” — a phrase that quietly makes the coming war personal to him specifically, not just a dynastic dispute.

Study deeper

Word by word

anye caअन्ये च
and others
bahavaḥबहवः
many
śūrāशूरा
heroes
mad-artheमद्-अर्थे
for my sake
tyakta-jīvitāḥत्यक्त-जीविताः
having given up their lives
nānā-śastra-praharaṇāḥनाना-शस्त्र-प्रहरणाः
wielding many kinds of weapons
sarveसर्वे
all
yuddha-viśāradāḥयुद्ध-विशारदाः
skilled in war

Commentary

Site Commentary

After eight verses of named individuals, the roster ends by folding everyone else into an anonymous “many others” — heroes real enough to die “for my sake” but not important enough to be named. Any list that runs long enough eventually reaches this point, where specific people quietly become a category.

Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary

Apply this verse

Lessons

Personal

  • Notice when your own gratitude runs out after naming a few specific people and everyone else quietly becomes 'the rest' — go back and name a few more before the category swallows them.

Professional

  • An all-hands thank-you that names a handful of contributors and lumps the rest into 'and the whole team' erases real people — notice who that is, and correct it deliberately when it matters.

Family & Social

  • When recounting a family event, notice which people get named specifically and which quietly become 'everyone else' — it says something honest about where your attention actually was.

Ask yourself

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