The verse only reinforces our impression of Arjuna gathered in the previous lines. He is giving the reason why he wants to review the enemy lines. As a man of action, he did not want to take any undue risk and so wanted to see for himself who were the low-minded, power-mad, greed-ridden men who had joined the forces of the Kauravas, supporting the palpably tyrannical and evidently unjust cause of the unscrupulous Duryodhana.

As we read the stanza, we can almost hear the great warrior’s teeth grinding, as he spits out these hot words which express his mental estimate of his relentless cousins.

Sri Sankaracharya did not comment on this sloka. The commentary starts from 2.10.