Mahabharata — Shalya Parva, Shloka 663
शल्यस्य पाण्डवसेनापीडनम् — Śalya’s Assault on the Pāṇḍava Host
with Omens and Bhīma’s Counter
रणे5हन्यत पुत्रैस्ते शतशशो5थ सहस््रशः । राजन! महारथी पाण्डुपुत्र कौरव-सेनाका वध करने लगे। इसी प्रकार आपके पुत्र भी पाण्डव-सेनाके सैकड़ों
sañjaya uvāca |
raṇe 'hanyata putrais te śataśaśo 'tha sahasraśaḥ |
rājan mahārathī pāṇḍuputraḥ kaurava-senāyā vadhaṃ kartum ārabdhavān |
tathā tava putrā api pāṇḍava-senāyāḥ śatān sahasrāṇi ca vīrāṇāṃ samaraṅgaṇe sarvataḥ svabāṇaiḥ saṃjahruḥ ||
Sañjaya said: In the battle, your sons struck down warriors by the hundreds and then by the thousands. O King, the great chariot-warrior among the sons of Pāṇḍu began to wreak slaughter in the Kaurava host. In the same way, your sons too, on every side of the battlefield, destroyed hundreds and thousands of heroes of the Pāṇḍava army with their arrows—an image of war’s escalating fury, where prowess eclipses restraint and the cost is measured in lives rather than victory alone.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the grim symmetry of war: both sides, driven by martial duty and rivalry, inflict mass destruction. It implicitly highlights the ethical cost of unchecked vengeance and the way battlefield prowess can eclipse compassion and restraint.
Sañjaya reports to King Dhṛtarāṣṭra that the fighting has intensified: a Pāṇḍava great warrior is slaughtering the Kaurava forces, and Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s sons respond in kind, killing large numbers of Pāṇḍava warriors with volleys of arrows across the battlefield.
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