Shloka 6
Duryodhana’s Anxiety, Bhīṣma’s Reassurance, and Renewed Mobilization (दुर्योधनचिन्ता–भीष्मप्रत्याश्वासन–सेनानिर्गमनम्)
अविध्यत् फाल्गुनं राजन् नवत्या निशितै: शरै: । वासुदेवं च सप्तत्या विव्याध परमेषुभि:
sañjaya uvāca |
avidhyat phālgunaṃ rājan navatyā niśitaiḥ śaraiḥ |
vāsudevaṃ ca saptatyā vivyādha parameṣubhiḥ ||
Sañjaya sprach: O König, er traf Phālguna (Arjuna) mit neunzig scharfen Pfeilen und durchbohrte auch Vāsudeva (Kṛṣṇa) mit siebzig vortrefflichen Geschossen. Die Begebenheit zeigt, wie verletzter Stolz und Zorn im Kampf einen Krieger zu gesteigerter Gewalt treiben können, selbst gegen den Wagenlenker, und so die moralische Last des Krieges vergrößern.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how anger and wounded ego in war can rapidly escalate harm, extending violence even toward a charioteer like Kṛṣṇa; it implicitly warns that loss of self-control increases one’s ethical burden amid kṣatriya conflict.
Sañjaya reports to the king that the warrior (contextually Aśvatthāmā in this passage) shoots Arjuna with ninety sharp arrows and then wounds Kṛṣṇa with seventy excellent shafts, intensifying the duel on the battlefield.