Shloka 12
Chapter 51: Saṃdhyākāla-saṃhāra
Evening Withdrawal after Arjuna’s Counter-Advance
दुर्मुखस्य तु भल्लेन सर्वावरणभेदिना । जहार सारथे: कायाच्छिर: संनतपर्वणा,इसके बाद झुकी हुई गाँठवाले तथा सब प्रकारके आवरणोंका भेदन करनेवाले एक भल्लके द्वारा दुर्मुखके सारथिका मस्तक धड़से अलग कर दिया
durmukhasya tu bhallena sarvāvaraṇabhedinā | jahāra sāratheḥ kāyāc chiraḥ saṃnataparvaṇā ||
Sañjaya said: With a bhalla-arrow—one that could pierce through every kind of armor and whose joints were bent—he severed the charioteer’s head from his body, striking down Durmukha’s driver. The verse underscores the grim precision of battlefield skill, where the collapse of a single support (the sārathi) can unravel a warrior’s capacity to fight, revealing the harsh ethical tension between martial duty and the human cost of war.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the ruthless efficiency of war: removing a key support like the charioteer can decisively disable a fighter. Ethically, it reflects the Mahābhārata’s recurring tension—martial duty and strategic necessity unfolding amid severe human suffering.
In Sañjaya’s battlefield report, a warrior uses a bhalla-arrow that pierces armor to strike Durmukha’s charioteer, severing his head from his body—an act that would leave Durmukha’s chariot effectively compromised.