Arjuna has asked Krishna to drive the chariot between the two armies so he can survey the battlefield. Now he states exactly what he wants to see: who has come here to fight for Duryodhana.
yotsyamānān avekṣe 'haṃ ya ete 'tra samāgatāḥ | dhārtarāṣṭrasya durbuddher yuddhe priya-cikīrṣavaḥ ||
Arjuna says: I want to look at those who have assembled here, ready to fight, wishing to please the evil-minded son of Dhritarashtra in this battle.
This is Arjuna at peak clarity, or what he thinks is peak clarity. He knows who the enemy is. He has a name for their motivation. He is using the right moral language. The crisis of Chapter 1 is not yet here, but this verse is the last breath before it arrives.
Asking to see who has gathered is, on the surface, a military calculation. But notice: a general who wants to assess troop numbers does not need to park the chariot between the armies. Arjuna wants to look at faces. The body already knows something the mind hasn't admitted yet.
Calling Duryodhana 'durbuddhi' (evil-minded) is Arjuna pre-loading his resolve. If the enemy is simply wrong, then fighting is simply right. But the label is fragile. It applies to Duryodhana, not to every person standing in that army. Once Arjuna sees that the armies contain his grandfather, his teachers, and his cousins, the label cannot hold them all.
There is something almost ritualistic about this request. Before grief hits, people sometimes insist on a final survey: let me see it fully before it changes. Arjuna's desire to inspect the assembled warriors is, at a deeper level, the mind cataloging what is about to be broken. The looking itself is part of the shock that follows.
A founder is about to go into a board meeting where she knows she will have to let go of co-founders who are no longer aligned with the company's direction. Before the meeting, she pulls up the old team photo. She scrolls through Slack history. She is telling herself she is reviewing the facts, checking her reasoning. She is not. She is doing what Arjuna is doing: looking at every face before the loss becomes real. The looking is not preparation. It is the grief arriving early.
Verse 24 shifts to Sanjaya, narrating how Krishna responds: he drives the chariot to the center, between both armies, and stops directly in front of Bhishma and Drona. The placement is not neutral. Krishna puts Arjuna exactly where the grief will be greatest. When ready, say: "1.24"