Sanjaya names more of the great warriors standing with the Pandavas: the master archer king of Kashi, Shikhandi, Dhrishtadyumna, Virata, and the never-defeated Satyaki.
The verse is a roll-call, not a teaching. Each name carries an epithet of rank: a wielder of the supreme bow, a great chariot-warrior, one who has never been conquered. Together they tell the blind king who exactly is arrayed against his sons.
And the King of Kashi, a great archer, and Shikhandi, a mighty warrior, and Dhrishtadyumna, Virata, and the unconquered Satyaki;
Sanjaya is reporting the battlefield to Dhritarashtra, and continues the survey of the Pandava side begun in the verses just before, piling one distinguished fighter onto the last.
Where they agreethe convergence
Across schools and centuries the commentators come to the same ground. These are the points they share, and the voices that hold each one.
The king of Kashi stands here, wielder of a supreme bow; Shikhandi, a great chariot-warrior; with Dhrishtadyumna, Virata, and Satyaki, who has never been beaten.
Across Advaita, Śuddhādvaita, Bhakti, Bhedābheda, and the modern voicesĀnandagiri · Dhanapati · Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara · Jñāneśvar · Tilak · Ramsukhdas · BhāskaraIn Ānandagiri, Dhanapati, and 6 others’ words
This verse is part of Sanjaya's roll-call of warriors. Sanjaya is the narrator reporting the battlefield scene to the blind king Dhritarashtra. Here he names more of the great fighters standing on the Pandava side: the king of Kashi, who is a master archer (parameshvasa means 'wielder of a supreme bow'); Shikhandi, called a maharatha (a 'great chariot-warrior', a title for a top-rank fighter); Dhrishtadyumna; Virata; and Satyaki, who is described as aparajita, 'the unconquered' or 'never defeated'. The commentators agree on this basic identification of who is being named and what their epithets mean.
These names are not a mere tally; one mighty warrior is set beside another so you feel an army standing of one mind, resolute together.
Across AdvaitaĀnandagiri · DhanapatiIn Ānandagiri and Dhanapati’s words
The point of listing these names is to show that the Pandava side stood united and resolute. Sanjaya is not merely cataloguing soldiers. By piling up one mighty, distinguished warrior after another, all standing together, he conveys that this army was of one mind. Some commentators read this as deliberately aimed at Dhritarashtra: by displaying the unanimity and strength of the opposing kings, Sanjaya quietly demolishes the king's false hope that his own sons might easily prevail.
Some of these names carry their own stories, and the men behind them are the very ones whose presence will turn the great moments of the war.
RamsukhdasIn Ramsukhdas’s words
Several of the names carry stories that explain their weight in the battle to come. Shikhandi was, in a former life, a woman (Amba, the daughter of the king of Kashi), and in this life too was born first as a daughter to King Drupada before later obtaining manhood from a yaksha. Because Bhishma regarded Shikhandi as essentially a woman, he refused to fire arrows at him; Arjuna would later use this, placing Shikhandi in front and shooting past him to bring Bhishma down. So the warriors named here are not just impressive titles; they are the very figures whose presence will decide key turns of the war.
This is the shared ground; it can be carried as it is.
A few questions to carry
These ask for understanding, not recall; each answer is settled by the commentary itself.
Carry this with youwhat stays
Notice whom Sanjaya chooses to dwell on. From the side he sees as adharma he names almost no one, but from the side of dharma he lingers, naming hero after hero with reverence. Ramsukhdas reads this as a quiet lesson in where the heart turns: Sanjaya feels no honor for the side of wrong, so he does not care to describe it at length, while joy rises in him as he speaks of the side of right and of the Lord standing with them. When you find yourself narrating your own life, watch which side you linger over. The warmth and attention we naturally give to the good, and the reluctance we feel toward what is unworthy, are themselves a reading of our own inner allegiance.
When you find yourself narrating your own life, notice which side you linger over with warmth and which you pass by; that lingering is itself a quiet reading of where your heart has already turned.
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Convergence
his verse is part of Sanjaya's roll-call of warriors. Sanjaya is the narrator reporting the battlefield scene to the blind king Dhritarashtra. Here he names more of the great fighters standing on the Pandava side: the king of Kashi, who is a master archer (parameshvasa means 'wielder of a supreme bow'); Shikhandi, called a maharatha (a 'great chariot-warrior', a title for a top-rank fighter); Dhrishtadyumna; Virata; and Satyaki, who is described as aparajita, 'the unconquered' or 'never defeated'. The commentators agree on this basic identification of who is being named and what their epithets mean.
Braided from 8 commentators
Śrī Ānandagiri · Dhanapati Sūri · Śrī Puruṣottama · Śrīdhara Svāmī · Sant Jñāneśvar · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas · Śrī Bhāskara
The point of listing these names is to show that the Pandava side stood united and resolute. Sanjaya is not merely cataloguing soldiers. By piling up one mighty, distinguished warrior after another, all standing together, he conveys that this army was of one mind. Some commentators read this as deliberately aimed at Dhritarashtra: by displaying the unanimity and strength of the opposing kings, Sanjaya quietly demolishes the king's false hope that his own sons might easily prevail.
Śrī Ānandagiri · Dhanapati Sūri
Several of the names carry stories that explain their weight in the battle to come. Shikhandi was, in a former life, a woman (Amba, the daughter of the king of Kashi), and in this life too was born first as a daughter to King Drupada before later obtaining manhood from a yaksha. Because Bhishma regarded Shikhandi as essentially a woman, he refused to fire arrows at him; Arjuna would later use this, placing Shikhandi in front and shooting past him to bring Bhishma down. So the warriors named here are not just impressive titles; they are the very figures whose presence will decide key turns of the war.
Swami Ramsukhdas
Divergence
Here the commentators are of one mind.
A Seeker Asks
Why does the Gita spend whole verses simply listing the names of warriors before any teaching begins?
The list is doing real work, not filling space. By naming one supreme archer and great chariot-warrior after another, all ranged on the Pandava side, Sanjaya shows that this army stood united and formidable; the names together build a single picture of overwhelming, like-minded strength.
Śrī Ānandagiri · Dhanapati Sūri
The names also carry the human stories that will shape the war, so they are far from empty. Shikhandi, for instance, is the figure Bhishma will not strike, and through whom Bhishma will fall. To hear these names is to feel the real stakes and the real people about to clash, which is exactly the weight the teaching that follows must answer.
Swami Ramsukhdas
Finally, who gets named, and at what length, is itself revealing. Sanjaya gives generous attention to the side of dharma and almost none to the side he sees as adharma, so even the roll-call quietly takes a moral measure of the two armies before a word of doctrine is spoken.
Swami Ramsukhdas
Contemplation
Notice whom Sanjaya chooses to dwell on. From the side he sees as adharma he names almost no one, but from the side of dharma he lingers, naming hero after hero with reverence. Ramsukhdas reads this as a quiet lesson in where the heart turns: Sanjaya feels no honor for the side of wrong, so he does not care to describe it at length, while joy rises in him as he speaks of the side of right and of the Lord standing with them. When you find yourself narrating your own life, watch which side you linger over. The warmth and attention we naturally give to the good, and the reluctance we feel toward what is unworthy, are themselves a reading of our own inner allegiance.
Sit with this · Swami Ramsukhdas
All the translations and commentary
Pull up a chair.
You have come to sit with this verse. When you are ready to hear the translators and the commentators in full, tap a name in The seating.