Shloka 87
Chapter 23: Śakuni Reports, Kaurava Advance, and Arjuna’s Penetration of the Host
कोष्ठकीकृत्य चाप्येनं परिक्षिप्य च सर्वश: । शस्त्रैर्ननाविधैर्जष्नुर्युद्धपारं तितीर्षव:
koṣṭhakīkṛtya cāpy enaṃ parikṣipya ca sarvaśaḥ | śastrair nānāvidhair jaghnur yuddhapāraṃ titīrṣavaḥ ||
Sañjaya sprach: Nachdem sie ihn wie in ein geschlossenes Gehege eingepfercht und von allen Seiten umringt hatten, trafen sie ihn mit Waffen vieler Art—Krieger, die entschlossen waren, die gefährliche Flut der Schlacht zu durchqueren.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights a grim ethical reality of war: when victory becomes the primary objective, combat shifts from individual valor to collective overpowering. It implicitly invites reflection on how strategic necessity can eclipse ideals of fair combat, even within a dharma-framed battlefield.
Sañjaya narrates that a group of warriors surround a single opponent from all sides, confining him as if in a pen, and then strike him with many kinds of weapons, driven by the urgency to push through and reach the ‘far shore’—the decisive end—of the battle.