Shloka 43
Book 9 (Śalya-parva), Adhyāya 13 — Arjuna’s Arrow-storm and the Drauṇi Confrontation
मद्रराजधनुर्मुक्ता: शरै: कनकभूषणै: । निरन्तरमिवाकाशं सम्बभूव जनाधिप,नरेश्वर! मद्रराज शल्यके धनुषसे छूटे हुए उन सुवर्णभूषित बाणोंसे आकाश ठसाठस भर गया था
sañjaya uvāca |
madra-rāja-dhanur-muktāḥ śaraiḥ kanaka-bhūṣaṇaiḥ |
nirantaram ivākāśaṃ sambabhūva janādhipa nara-īśvara ||
Sañjaya sprach: O Herr der Menschen, o König! Als Śalya, der König von Madra, von seinem Bogen unablässig goldgeschmückte Pfeile entsandte, schien der Himmel ohne Unterlass davon erfüllt zu sein.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how, in the battlefield setting, power and skill can manifest as an overwhelming, almost totalizing force (the sky ‘filled’ with arrows). Ethically, it points to the Mahābhārata’s recurring tension: martial excellence and royal duty (kṣatriya-dharma) operate within a larger moral catastrophe, where the display of might does not resolve the deeper problem of adharma and the suffering produced by war.
Sañjaya describes Śalya, the king of Madra, releasing a dense, continuous volley of gold-adorned arrows from his bow, so numerous that the sky appears packed or covered by them. It is a vivid report of the intensity of combat in the Śalya Parva battle sequence.