{ "verse_id": "2.31", "mūla": { "devanāgarī": "स्व-धर्मम् अपि चावेक्ष्य न विकम्पितुम् अर्हसि | धर्म्याद् धि युद्धाच् छ्रेयो ऽन्यत् क्षत्रियस्य न विद्यते", "iast": "sva-dharmam api cāvekṣya na vikampitum arhasi | dharmyād dhi yuddhāc chreyo 'nyat kṣatriyasya na vidyate", "chapter_position": "Chapter 2 (Sāṅkhya-Yoga (The Yoga of Knowledge)), verse 31", "speaker": "Krishna", "addressed_to": "Arjuna" }, "word_by_word": [ { "surface_form": "sva", "lemma": "sva", "grammar": "compound (compound member)", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "स्व" }, { "surface_form": "dharmam", "lemma": "dharma", "grammar": "accusative masculine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "धर्मम्" }, { "surface_form": "api", "lemma": "api", "grammar": "", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "अपि" }, { "surface_form": "ca", "lemma": "ca", "grammar": "", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "च" }, { "surface_form": "avekṣya", "lemma": "avekṣ", "grammar": "conv", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "अवेक्ष्य" }, { "surface_form": "na", "lemma": "na", "grammar": "", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "न" }, { "surface_form": "vikampitum", "lemma": "vikamp", "grammar": "infinitive", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "अर्हसि धर्म्यात् न्यायतः प्रवृत्तात् युद्धाद् अन्यत् न हि क्षत्रियस्य श्रेयो विद्यते", "school": "viśiṣṭādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "ramanuja" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "विकम्पितुम्" }, { "surface_form": "arhasi", "lemma": "√arh", "grammar": "present indicative 2nd person singular verb", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "धर्म्यात् न्यायतः प्रवृत्तात् युद्धाद् अन्यत् न हि क्षत्रियस्य श्रेयो विद्यते", "school": "viśiṣṭādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "ramanuja" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "अर्हसि" }, { "surface_form": "dharmyāt", "lemma": "dharmya", "grammar": "ablative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "धर्म्यात्" }, { "surface_form": "hi", "lemma": "hi", "grammar": "", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "हि" }, { "surface_form": "yuddhāt", "lemma": "yuddha", "grammar": "ablative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "युद्धात्" }, { "surface_form": "śreyaḥ", "lemma": "śreyas", "grammar": "nominative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "श्रेयः" }, { "surface_form": "anyat", "lemma": "anya", "grammar": "nominative neuter singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "अन्यत्" }, { "surface_form": "kṣatriyasya", "lemma": "kṣatriya", "grammar": "genitive masculine singular noun", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "युद्धं तमपि अवेक्ष्य त्वं न विकम्पितुं प्रचलितुम् नार्हसि क्षत्रियस्य स्वाभाविकाद्धर्मात् आत्मस्वाभाव्यादित्यभिप्रायः", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara", "anandgiri" ] }, { "sense": "श्रेयो विद्यते", "school": "viśiṣṭādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "ramanuja" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "क्षत्रियस्य" }, { "surface_form": "na", "lemma": "na", "grammar": "", "senses_attested_in_panel": [], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "न" }, { "surface_form": "vidyate", "lemma": "√vid", "grammar": "present indicative pass 3rd person singular verb", "senses_attested_in_panel": [ { "sense": "हि यस्मात्", "school": "advaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "shankara" ] }, { "sense": "। शौर्यं तेजो धृतिर्दाक्ष्यं युद्धे चाप्यपलायनम्। दानमीश्वरभावश्च क्षात्रं कर्म स्वभावजम्।।(गीता 18।43) इति हि वक्ष्यते।", "school": "viśiṣṭādvaita", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "ramanuja" ] }, { "sense": "। युद्धमेव हि पृथिवीजयद्वारेण प्रजारक्षणब्राह्मणशुश्रूषादिक्षात्रधर्मनिर्वाहकमिति तदेव क्षत्रियस्य प्रशस्ततरमित्यभिप्राय", "school": "advaita-bhakti", "weight": 0.8, "witnesses": [ "madhusudan" ] } ], "theme_lists": [], "surface_devanagari": "विद्यते" } ], "intertextual_panel": [ { "verse": "2.33", "type": "near-cluster echo", "score": 0.9225, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8516, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0544, "lemma_overlap": 14.0687, "stem_prefix": 6.0 } }, { "verse": "2.40", "type": "lemma-family resonance", "score": 0.9138, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8538, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 13.091, "stem_prefix": 6.0 } }, { "verse": "3.35", "type": "lemma-family resonance", "score": 0.9096, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8487, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0544, "lemma_overlap": 15.8388, "stem_prefix": 5.0 } }, { "verse": "2.6", "type": "lemma-family resonance", "score": 0.8927, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8227, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 13.7692, "stem_prefix": 7.0 } }, { "verse": "2.8", "type": "cross-chapter thematic parallel", "score": 0.8865, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8265, "theme_graph": 1.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 7.8682, "stem_prefix": 5.0 } }, { "verse": "3.9", "type": "shared-vocabulary echo", "score": 0.8838, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8238, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 5.609, "stem_prefix": 6.0 } }, { "verse": "4.38", "type": "shared-vocabulary echo", "score": 0.8837, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8437, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 6.5229, "stem_prefix": 4.0 } }, { "verse": "1.33", "type": "shared-vocabulary echo", "score": 0.8811, "feature_breakdown": { "cosine": 0.8311, "theme_graph": 0.0, "vocative": 0.0, "substring": 0.0, "lemma_overlap": 6.8542, "stem_prefix": 5.0 } } ], "doctrinal_projections": { "advaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "shankara_2.31", "anandgiri_2.31" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Śaṅkara reads the svadharma argument as secondary scaffolding: yuddha (battle) is the kṣatriya's svābhāvika (natural) dharma — not because varṇa-obligation is ultimate, but because it aligns action with the ātman's own nature (ātmasvābhāvya), clearing the path for jñāna. The verse thus addresses the surface-level bhrama (confusion) of one who conflates personal grief with a universal prohibition on violence, before the deeper ātma-vicāra dissolves the agent altogether. For Śaṅkara, the śreyas (highest good) that no alternative to yuddha can supply is not victory but the niṣkāma state that dharmic action, when performed without trembling, makes possible.", "commentator": "Śaṅkarācārya" }, "viśiṣṭādvaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "ramanuja_2.31", "vedantadeshika_2.31" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Rāmānuja reads yuddha as a full analogue of Vedic yajña: just as the agni-ṣomīya (Vedic Soma sacrifice) involves prāṇi-māraṇa (killing of an animal) that is nonetheless dharmic by śruti-injunction, so too this battle — svadharma avekṣya (considered in light of one's own dharma) — is an act of kainkarya (service) to Bhagavān, not violence. The Yajur-Veda passage he cites (na vā u etanmriyase, 4.6.9.43) guarantees the slain a sугебhi (auspicious path), parallel to the verse's own promise of elevated rebirth. For Rāmānuja, the śreyas (highest good) that no alternative can furnish is the kṣatriya's complete fulfilment of the svabhāva-ja (nature-born) duties enumerated at 18.43 — śaurya (valour), tejā (energy), dhṛti (firmness), dākṣya (skill), and appalāyana (non-flight in battle) — each of which is itself a face of Bhagavān's guṇa.", "commentator": "Rāmānujācārya" }, "dvaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "madhva_2.31", "jayatirtha_2.31" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "*Sva-dharma* (one's own assigned station) is not self-authored: for the *paratantra* *jīva* (the eternally dependent individual self), it is Hari's *svabhāva-kṛta vyavasthā* (nature-constituted ordering) that fixes the *kṣatriya*'s function as warfare. *Vikampitum* — to waver — is therefore not mere timidity but a refusal of the station Bhagavān has assigned according to *taratamya* (graded ontological hierarchy). The mūla's declaration — *dharmyād dhi yuddhāc chreyo 'nyat kṣatriyasya na vidyate* — carries full ontological weight: because the *jīva*'s very being is *paratantra*, there is genuinely no higher good available to it outside the function allotted by Hari. To abandon *yuddha* is not a private moral failure but a rupture in the *pañca-bheda* (the five-fold real distinction) order, a refusal of *bhakti* expressed through action. *Sva-dharma*, rightly seen, is the *kṣatriya jīva*'s mode of ontological subordination to *svatantra* Hari.", "commentator": "Madhvācārya", "divergence_note": "Bucket changed from B to C: no Madhva or Jayatīrtha bhāṣya prose exists for this verse. The reading is voiced directly from Dvaita *siddhānta* applied to the mūla.", "provenance": "siddhānta_reconstruction" }, "śuddhādvaita": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "vallabha_2.31" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Vallabha reads the verse as a correction of Arjuna's dharmabhraṃśa (falling away from dharma): the vepathus (trembling) and romāñca (horripilation) described in 1.29 were symptoms of a dharma-niṣṭha (one grounded in dharma) forgetting his station, and the present verse restores him by pointing to svadharma as Kṛṣṇa's own prasāda-rūpa (form of grace). In Puṣṭi-mārga, neither the varṇa-argument nor the ātma-argument is the deepest ground; the deepest ground is that Kṛṣṇa himself is both the ādeśa (command) and the śakti (power) to execute it, so the kṣatriya who fights without vikampana (trembling) is already flowing in the current of Kṛṣṇa's līlā (divine play). The śreyas is thus neither jñāna nor duty-fulfilment but the grace-sustained anupraveśa (entry) into Kṛṣṇa's own desire.", "commentator": "Vallabhācārya" }, "bhakti": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "sridhara_2.31" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Śrīdhara anchors the verse between two of Arjuna's prior complaints — the vepathus-romāñca (trembling-horripilation) of 1.29 and the na śreyo'nupaśyāmi (I see no good in killing kinsmen) of 1.31 — and shows that both dissolve before the double argument of 2.31: ātmā cannot be destroyed (so the trembling is unfounded), and the yuddha is dharmānapeta (not departing from dharma, i.e., fully lawful). The phrase dharmyād yuddha (battle grounded in dharma) is rendered by Śrīdhara as nyāyya (just/proper), a juridical term meaning the action conforms to both śāstra and svabhāva. For the bhakti-philological school, śreyas (highest good) here carries a double valence: it names the kṣatriya's this-worldly excellence and simultaneously points, through the grammar of the comparative, toward the path of bhakti that the Gītā will fully disclose.", "commentator": "Śrīdhara Svāmī" }, "advaita-bhakti": { "reading_summary": "(reading summary extraction pending; ENABLE_READING_SUMMARIES=true to generate)", "key_cross_references": [], "witness_passages": [ "madhusudan_2.31" ], "score": 0.5, "english_rendering": "Madhusūdana frames the verse at the hinge of two remedies: the upādhitraya-viveka (discrimination of the three adjuncts — gross body, subtle body, avidyā) was the ātmajñāna remedy for Arjuna's sādhāraṇa-bhrama (universal confusion); now the present verse addresses his asādhāraṇa-bhrama (personal confusion specific to him) — the appearance that his yuddha is adharma because of its hiṃsā-bahulya (preponderance of violence). Madhusūdana cites Parāśara and Manu to establish that kṣatriya-yuddha is praja-rakṣaṇa (protection of subjects) and brāhmaṇa-śuśrūṣā (service to brāhmaṇas), making it not merely permitted but praśastatara (more commended) than any alternative. The advaita-bhakti synthesis lies in the structure: Śaṅkara's non-dual ātman dissolves the agent; Kṛṣṇa as Bhagavān furnishes the compassionate command; together they leave Arjuna neither a karmin bound by duty nor a jñānin above it, but a devotee who acts from the clarity of both.", "commentator": "Madhusūdana Sarasvatī" } }, "prosodic_information": { "meter": "anuṣṭubh", "meter_shift_from_previous": false, "meter_shift_to_next": false, "pragmatic_context": { "vocative": "", "preceding_question": "", "following_response": "" } }, "theme_list_memberships": [ { "list": "अपि च", "role": "supporting", "other_verses_in_list": [ "2.8", "4.36", "6.9", "6.25", "9.30", "11.2", "15.18", "17.10", "17.12" ] } ], "audit_trail": { "substrate_version": "v2.6-frozen", "fitted_weights": { "a": 1.0, "b": 0.01, "e_v": 0.005, "z": 0.2, "h": 0.0, "th": 0.01 }, "corpus_provenance": { "mūla": "Belvalkar critical edition (BORI 1947), via Ambuda multi-witness", "panel_witnesses": [ "bg-mula", "bg-shankara", "bg-ramanuja", "bg-madhva", "bg-vedantadeshika", "bg-vallabha", "bg-jayatirtha", "bg-anandgiri", "bg-sridhara", "bg-madhusudan" ] }, "extraction_date": "2026-04-21", "score_methodology_documented_at": "Paper 1, Section II.B", "word_by_word_parser": "ByT5-Sanskrit-multitask (Nehrdich/Hellwig/Keutzer EMNLP 2024)", "post_generation_repairs": [ { "date": "2026-05-03", "fix": "verb-lemma-misidentification (broader heuristic: prefix-√root canonical for all verb-tagged tokens)", "scope": "word_by_word[].lemma", "loci": [ "arhasi: arh -> √arh", "vidyate: vid -> √vid" ] } ] }, "so_what_questions": [ "Śaṅkara frames svadharma as ātmasvābhāvya (aligned with the ātman's own nature). Does this make varṇa-dharma contingent on self-knowledge, such that a kṣatriya who has achieved jñāna is released from the obligation to fight — or does the obligation persist as niṣkāma-karma regardless?", "Rāmānuja invokes the agni-ṣomīya (Vedic Soma sacrifice) to show that dharmic context transforms the moral character of killing. How far does this analogy hold when the opponent is not a ritual animal but a person with the same ātman-status as the actor?", "The verse says dharmyād yuddha — battle that is dharmya (dharma-grounded). Who adjudicates whether a given battle meets this criterion, and what institutional mechanism in the Gītā's own world is designed to make that determination?", "If śreyas (highest good) for a kṣatriya has no alternative to yuddha, does the verse entail that a kṣatriya born into an era with no righteous war to fight is structurally blocked from śreyas — or does svadharma itself evolve when the external condition is absent?", "Madhusūdana distinguishes Arjuna's sādhāraṇa-bhrama (universal error, addressed by ātmajñāna) from his asādhāraṇa-bhrama (private error, addressed here by svadharma). This two-tiered error-structure implies that the same action can be commanded at two independent levels simultaneously. Does this make 2.31 a logical redundancy once 2.19–2.20 are accepted — or does it supply a genuinely distinct and irreducible justification?", "Śrīdhara reads dharmyāt yuddha as nyāyya (just) — a juridical rather than metaphysical term. The Gītā is addressed to a specific warrior in a specific war. Does the verse's logic transfer to wars in which the varṇa-system has dissolved, or is dharmya a historically bounded predicate?" ], "everyday_applications": { "advaita": "When you face a task that is clearly yours by nature and training but feel paralysed by anticipated harm, Śaṅkara's reading instructs: examine whether the paralysis is bhrama (confusion between your ātman and the outcome) or genuine moral discernment. Act from svābhāvika (natural) competence without claiming the fruit; the action performed without vikampana (trembling) becomes niṣkāma-karma and clears the ground for the self-inquiry that is the actual goal.", "viśiṣṭādvaita": "Rāmānuja's yajña-analogy applies when your professional or familial role requires you to do something that looks harmful in isolation — delivering a difficult verdict, ending a business relationship, administering painful medicine. Examine the svabhāva-ja (nature-born) qualities your station calls for — precision, courage, non-evasion — and perform the act as a liturgical function: not because it feels good but because Bhagavān's order is served through that station faithfully held.", "dvaita": "Madhva's pāratantrya (dependent-existence) framing applies to every moment of role-temptation: when you are assigned a function — parent, physician, judge — and consider abandoning it for one that feels nobler or less conflicted, the Dvaita reading asks whether that preference is your jīva's subordinate alignment with Hari's will or your ego's reassertion of independence. Staying in the assigned function, executed without self-inflation, is the more complete act of worship.", "śuddhādvaita": "Vallabha's prasāda lens: when you face a duty that frightens you, the dharmaniṣṭha (one grounded in dharma) does not argue themselves into it by logic — they ask for grace to be the instrument. The vikampana (trembling) Arjuna displayed was not sensitivity but a failure to surrender the action back to Kṛṣṇa. The practice is to perform the difficult act as an offering, expecting neither external validation nor internal peace as its fruit, but the quiet that comes from having placed the action in Bhagavān's hands.", "bhakti": "Śrīdhara's double-valence of śreyas points to a practical heuristic: when you cannot see any good outcome from the right action, ask whether your inability to see it is a problem of vision or a problem of the action. The Gītā's grammar of the comparative (śreyas — better than any alternative) implies that the best available path may still look terrible from inside the grief-state. Bhakti's answer is to act from relationship — to Bhagavān, to the people the action protects — rather than from consequentialist calculus.", "advaita-bhakti": "Madhusūdana's two-tiered bhrama-correction has a direct practical corollary: universal suffering (the sādhāraṇa-bhrama of identifying with a perishable body) calls for meditation and self-inquiry; but the asādhāraṇa-bhrama specific to your situation — the fear that doing your job makes you a wrongdoer — calls for svadharma-viveka (discrimination of your own function). When jñāna and svadharma converge, as they do here, the action that seemed most dangerous becomes the one most aligned with both liberation and care." }, "primary_meaning": "Look at your own dharma and do not tremble, for a warrior has no higher good than a battle that is righteous." }