Chapter 1 · Verse 18·Spoken by Sanjaya
द्रुपदो द्रौपदेयाश्च सर्वशः पृथिवीपते। सौभद्रश्च महाबाहुः शङ्खान्दध्मुः पृथक्पृथक्
drupado draupadeyāśhcha sarvaśhaḥ pṛithivī-pate saubhadraśhcha mahā-bāhuḥ śhaṅkhāndadhmuḥ pṛithak pṛithak
Drupada and the sons of Draupadi, and the mighty-armed son of Subhadra: all of them, O king, blew their own conches.
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Sanskrit recitation by Swami Brahmānanda
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Convergence
he verse names the last set of conch-blowers in Sanjaya's roll-call of the Pandava side. King Drupada blows his conch, as do the sons of Draupadi (the five young princes born to her), and so does Saubhadra, that is, Abhimanyu, the son of Subhadra and Arjuna, who is called 'mighty-armed' (maha-bahu). The commentators simply identify these warriors and confirm that each one sounded his own conch.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Puruṣottama · Dhanapati Sūri · Lokmanya Tilak
The phrase 'prithak prithak' means 'severally' or 'each one separately': every warrior blew his own conch as an individual act, not in a single combined blast. The commentators preserve this sense of many distinct horns sounding one after another, building the full din of the army.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Puruṣottama · Lokmanya Tilak
Several brief grammatical glosses note that the four descriptive qualifications carried in this stretch of verses (such as 'great bowman' and the rest) are to be applied distributively, that is, each qualifier attaches to each warrior named, so that the praise is spread across all of them rather than fixed to one.
Śrī Ānandagiri · Dhanapati Sūri
The verse is spoken by Sanjaya to the blind king Dhritarashtra, who is addressed here as 'Earth-lord' (prithivi-pati, lord of the earth). Some commentators read this form of address as Sanjaya urging the anxious king to steady himself and listen closely to what is coming.
Śrī Puruṣottama · Dhanapati Sūri · Lokmanya Tilak · Swami Ramsukhdas
This conch-blowing marks the formal commencement of the battle; the swelling sound is the signal that the war is about to begin, and other commentators add that the same roar tore at the hearts of Dhritarashtra's sons and made sky and earth resound, which is the effect taken up in the verse that follows.
Swami Sivananda · Śrī Bhāskara · Swami Ramsukhdas
Divergence
Advaita Vedānta
This commentator gives a specific reading of the address 'Earth-lord': it is Sanjaya speaking to the blind king Dhritarashtra, and some take it to mean 'O Earth-lord, become firm and hear,' that is, a gentle command to the king to compose himself before the report continues. The grammatical point is also stressed, that each of the four qualifiers connects with each warrior named.
Dhanapati Sūri
Modern
These voices look beyond the bare list to the meaning of the scene. One notes a further warrior, Satyaki, called 'unconquered,' that is, never beaten in battle, and carries forward the consequence of the noise: that din rent the hearts of Dhritarashtra's sons and made both sky and earth resound. The other dwells at length on who is named and who is not, observing that in the conch-blowing Sanjaya names only Bhishma from the Kaurava side but names eighteen heroes on the Pandava side; from this he reads that Sanjaya has no honor in his heart for the side of adharma (unrighteousness) and so will not describe it at length, while he reveres the side of dharma (righteousness), Krishna and the Pandavas, and takes joy in describing them more fully. (Note: the label 'Bhaskara' here marks the source key; this passage is non-sectarian narrative comment, not a Bhedabheda doctrinal reading.)
Śrī Bhāskara · Swami Ramsukhdas
A Seeker Asks
Why does the Gita spend whole verses simply listing warriors and their conches before any teaching begins?
The list is not idle. These verses set the scene of the battlefield with care, naming the great warriors of the Pandava side one by one and showing each sounding his own conch, so that the formal start of the war is felt as a real and weighty event before a word of the teaching is spoken.
Śrīdhara Svāmī · Śrī Puruṣottama · Swami Sivananda
The naming is also pointed. One commentator observes that Sanjaya names only one Kaurava hero but eighteen on the Pandava side, including Krishna, Arjuna, and Bhima, and reads in this Sanjaya's own heart: he has no reverence for the side of unrighteousness and will not dwell on it, but he honors the side of righteousness and finds joy in describing it fully. So even a list of names can quietly carry where the speaker's devotion lies.
Swami Ramsukhdas
And the scene is building toward its effect. The swelling roar of these conches is the signal that the battle has begun, a sound that, as the next verse tells, tore at the hearts of the opposing side and shook sky and earth; the long list is the in-breath before that thunder.
Swami Sivananda · Śrī Bhāskara · Swami Ramsukhdas
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