1.26 Ten kinds of relation Sanjaya speaks
तत्रापश्यत्स्थितान्पार्थः पितृ़नथ पितामहान्
आचार्यान्मातुलान्भ्रातृ़न्पुत्रान्पौत्रान्सखींस्तथा
tatrāpaśhyat sthitān pārthaḥ pitṝīn atha pitāmahān
āchāryān mātulān bhrātṝīn putrān pautrān sakhīṁs tathā
śhvaśhurān suhṛidaśh chaiva senayor ubhayor api
And there Arjuna saw them standing — fathers, grandfathers, teachers, uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons, companions, fathers-in-law and friends, in both armies.
Explanation
Count the relationships.
- fathers, grandfathers, teachers
- uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons
- companions, fathers-in-law, friends
Ten kinds of kin, and the verse ends in both armies. This is what the middle of the field showed him, and it is the whole cause of the collapse: not danger, relation.
Going further
Word by word
- tatra
- there
- apaśhyat
- saw
- sthitān
- stationed
- pārthaḥ
- Arjun
- pitṝīn
- fathers
- atha
- thereafter
- pitāmahān
- grandfathers
- āchāryān
- teachers
- mātulān
- maternal uncles
- bhrātṝīn
- brothers
- putrān
- sons
- pautrān
- grandsons
- sakhīn
- friends
- tathā
- also
- śhvaśhurān
- fathers-in-law
- suhṛidaḥ
- well-wishers
- cha
- and
- eva
- indeed
- senayoḥ
- armies
- ubhayoḥ
- in both armies
- api
- also
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Count the relationships: fathers, grandfathers, teachers, uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons, companions, fathers-in-law, friends. Ten kinds of belonging, in one verse, on both sides.
This is the verse the whole book rests on. Not an enemy in sight — only people he is related to, arranged into two armies. The Sanskrit piles the terms up without conjunctions, so it reads like someone scanning a crowd and recognising face after face.