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Bhagavad-Gītā with Śaṅkara's bhāṣya · 2.31
sva-dharmam api cāvekṣya na vikampitum arhasi | dharmyād dhi yuddhāc chreyo 'nyat kṣatriyasya na vidyate
Translation. And, taking your own duty (svadharma) too into account, you ought not to waver;
for a Kṣatriya, nothing else is better than righteous (dharmya) battle.
Grammar check: 15 words pass / 0 flagged / 0 beyond the checkerPāṇini-verified
Every word's claimed grammar is re-derived with vidyut-prakriya, software implementing Pāṇini's rules. Flags are shown, never hidden; some are the text taking epic or Vedic liberties the classical rules do not generate.
Word by word
| surface | lemma | grammar |
|---|
| svadharmam | svadharma | pass |
| api | api | pass |
| ca | ca | pass |
| avekṣya | īkṣ | pass |
| na | na | pass |
| vikampitum | kap | pass |
| arhasi | arh | pass |
| dharmyāt | dharmya | pass |
| hi | hi | pass |
| yuddhāt | yuddha | pass |
| śreyaḥ | śreyas | pass |
| anyat | anya | pass |
| kṣatriyasya | kṣatriya | pass |
| na | na | pass |
| vidyate | vid | pass |
How the commentary settled it
Where the verse alone is ambiguous, the reading follows Śaṅkara's commentary; the deciding lines are quoted below each decision.
svadharmam is a karmadhāraya, svaḥ dharmaḥ, ‘one's own duty,’ not a genitive compound. In this context Śaṅkara identifies that duty specifically as a Kṣatriya's battle and explains it as natural to his own constitution.→ A karmadhāraya, translated ‘your own duty (svadharma),’ contextually the Kṣatriya's natural duty of battle.
gita [1]svadharmam api svo dharmaḥ kṣatriyasya yuddhaṃ tam api avekṣya tvaṃ na vikampituṃ pracalitum nārhasi kṣatriyasya svābhāvikād dharmād ātma-svābhāvyād ity abhiprāyaḥ |
‘Your own duty’ means one's own duty—the Kṣatriya's battle. Taking that too into account, you should not waver or move away; the intention is that it arises from the Kṣatriya's natural duty, from his intrinsic nature.
api is additive rather than concessive: Arjuna is to take his own duty ‘too’ into account, as an additional reason not to waver. ca links this consideration to the preceding teaching.→ Additive ‘and … too,’ because the commentary repeats tam api avekṣya, ‘taking that too into account.’
gita [1]svadharmam api svo dharmaḥ kṣatriyasya yuddhaṃ tam api avekṣya tvaṃ na vikampituṃ pracalitum nārhasi
‘Your own duty’ is the Kṣatriya's battle; taking that too into account, you should not waver.
avekṣya is an absolutive whose object is svadharmam, expressing a prior or accompanying consideration: ‘taking your own duty into account.’ It is not a second-person finite future form.→ Absolutive ‘taking into account,’ with svadharmam as its object.
gita [1]kṣatriyasya yuddhaṃ tam api avekṣya tvaṃ na vikampituṃ pracalitum nārhasi
The Kṣatriya's battle—taking that too into account, you should not waver or move away.
vikampitum is the infinitive complement of arhasi. Here it means to waver or recoil from one's duty, not merely to experience physical trembling; Śaṅkara glosses it with pracalitum. The obligation construction is also consistent with arh plus infinitive ([MW s.v. arh, 93,3]).→ Infinitive ‘to waver/recoil,’ governed by ‘you ought not.’
gita [1]tvaṃ na vikampituṃ pracalitum nārhasi
You ought not to waver—that is, to move away.
dharmya characterizes the battle as righteous or conforming to dharma, not merely customary or legally permitted. Śaṅkara explains that this battle serves dharma and the protection of subjects and is ‘not departed from dharma,’ indeed eminently dharmya.→ ‘Righteous (dharmya) battle,’ with the strong sense supplied by the commentary.
gita [2]tac ca yuddhaṃ pṛthivī-jaya-dvāreṇa dharmārthaṃ prajā-rakṣaṇārthaṃ ceti dharmād anapetaṃ paraṃ dharmyam |
That battle, through the conquest of the earth, is for the sake of dharma and for the protection of the subjects; thus it does not depart from dharma and is eminently righteous.
dharmyāt yuddhāt is the ablative standard of comparison governed by the comparative śreyaḥ ([MW s.v. śreyas, 1102,2]); śreyaḥ agrees with substantival anyat, yielding ‘nothing else is better than righteous battle.’ kṣatriyasya marks the person for whom this comparison holds.→ Comparative ablative: ‘for a Kṣatriya, nothing else is better than righteous battle.’
gita [3]tasmād dharmyād yuddhāc chreyo 'nyat kṣatriyasya na vidyate hi yasmāt ||bhgs_2.31||
Therefore, because no other better thing than that righteous battle exists for a Kṣatriya.
hi is causal, introducing the ground for the preceding injunction: Arjuna should not waver because no better alternative exists for a Kṣatriya. Śaṅkara makes this force explicit by recasting hi as yasmāt, ‘because.’→ Causal ‘for.’
gita [3]tasmād dharmyād yuddhāc chreyo 'nyat kṣatriyasya na vidyate hi yasmāt
Therefore, because—for this reason—no other better thing than righteous battle exists for a Kṣatriya.
vidyate is retained as a Kartari present of existential √vid, ‘exists/is found,’ following Vyākaraṇī. Reading it as ‘is known’ would not fit anyat śreyaḥ as the nominative subject and the existential comparison.
→ Kartari existential ‘exists/is found.’
Śaṅkara's commentary on this unit
1svadharmam api svo dharmaḥ kṣatriyasya yuddhaṃ tam api avekṣya tvaṃ na vikampituṃ pracalitum nārhasi kṣatriyasya svābhāvikād dharmād ātma-svābhāvyād ity abhiprāyaḥ |
2tac ca yuddhaṃ pṛthivī-jaya-dvāreṇa dharmārthaṃ prajā-rakṣaṇārthaṃ ceti dharmād anapetaṃ paraṃ dharmyam |
3tasmād dharmyād yuddhāc chreyo 'nyat kṣatriyasya na vidyate hi yasmāt ||bhgs_2.31||
4kutaś ca tat yuddhaṃ kartavyam iti, ucyate ---