Shloka 16
Sauptika-parva Adhyāya 13 — Bhīmasena’s Pursuit of Drauṇi and the Release of a Divine Astra
तमभ्यधावत् कौन्तेय: प्रगृह्य सशरं धनु:
tam abhyadhāvat kaunteyaḥ pragṛhya saśaraṃ dhanuḥ
Vaiśaṃpāyana sprach: Da stürmte der Sohn der Kuntī auf ihn zu, den Bogen mit schussbereiten Pfeilen ergriffen—mit dringlicher Entschlossenheit mitten in der Gewalt der Nachkriegszeit, entschlossen, der Bedrohung unmittelbar entgegenzutreten.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights decisive kṣatriya response to imminent danger: when adharma erupts in the chaos after battle, a protector must act swiftly—yet the broader Sauptika context also presses the ethical question of how far retaliation should go once war’s boundaries have collapsed.
Vaiśampāyana narrates that Kaunteya (understood here as Arjuna) charges toward the opponent, taking up his bow already furnished with arrows, signaling immediate readiness for confrontation in the tense events of the Sauptika episode.