Shloka 118
आदि पर्व, अध्याय 67 — गान्धर्वविवाह-समयः
Duḥṣanta–Śakuntalā: Gandharva Marriage and Succession Condition
अस्य षोडशवर्षस्य स संग्रामो भविष्यति । यत्रांशा व: करिष्यन्ति कर्म वीरनिषूदनम्,“इसके सोलहवें वर्षमें वह महाभारत-युद्ध होगा, जिसमें आपलोगोंके अंशसे उत्पन्न हुए वीर-पुरुष शत्रुवीरोंका संहार करनेवाला अद्भुत पराक्रम कर दिखायेंगे
asya ṣoḍaśavarṣasya sa saṅgrāmo bhaviṣyati | yatrāṃśā vaḥ kariṣyanti karma vīraniṣūdanam ||
Vaiśaṃpāyana said: “In his sixteenth year that great war will take place—one in which the heroic men born from your own portions will perform deeds of astonishing prowess, becoming destroyers of enemy champions.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames the coming war as time-bound and purposeful: extraordinary agents, born from the 'portions' of higher beings, will carry out decisive action. Ethically, it highlights the Mahābhārata’s tension between inevitable destiny and the moral weight of karma—great deeds in war are portrayed as instruments within a larger cosmic order.
Vaiśampāyana delivers a prophetic statement that, in the sixteenth year of the person being referred to, a major war will occur. In that conflict, heroes arising from the addressed beings’ own aṃśas will display remarkable valor and slay enemy champions.