Devanagari
तत आसाद्य तरसा दारुणं गौतमीसुतम् ।
बबन्धामर्षताम्राक्ष: पशुं रशनया यथा ॥ ३३ ॥
Verse text
tata āsādya tarasā
dāruṇaṁ gautamī-sutam
babandhāmarṣa-tāmrākṣaḥ
paśuṁ raśanayā yathā
Synonyms
tataḥ
—
thereupon
;
āsādya
—
arrested
;
tarasā
—
dexterously
;
dāruṇam
—
dangerous
;
gautamī
—
sutam — the son of Gautamī
;
babandha
—
bound up
;
amarṣa
—
angry
;
tāmra
—
akṣaḥ — with copper-red eyes
;
paśum
—
animal
;
raśanayā
—
by ropes
;
yathā
—
as it were .
Translation
Arjuna, his eyes blazing in anger like two red balls of copper, dexterously arrested the son of Gautamī and bound him with ropes like an animal.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Eyes burning with anger, Arjuna quickly caught cruel Aśvatthāmā, and tied him up with rope like a beast.
Purport
Aśvatthāmā’s mother, Kṛpī, was born in the family of Gautama. The significant point in this
śloka
is that Aśvatthāmā was caught and bound up with ropes like an animal. According to Śrīdhara Svāmī, Arjuna was obliged to catch this son of a
brāhmaṇa
like an animal as a part of his duty (
dharma
). This suggestion by Śrīdhara Svāmī is also confirmed in the later statement of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Aśvatthāmā was a bona fide son of Droṇācārya and Kṛpī, but because he had degraded himself to a lower status of life, it was proper to treat him as an animal and not as a
brāhmaṇa.
Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Aśvatthāmā was the son of Kṛpī, who came from the Gautama gotra. Thus she is called gautamī.