Shloka 69
Daiva–Puruṣakāra Discourse and the Elephant-Corps Engagement (भीमगजानीक-सम्भ्रान्ति)
भीमसेनममेयात्मा प्रत्यविध्यत् स्तनान्तरे । उन्हें आते देख अमेय आत्मबलसे सम्पन्न कलिंग-राज श्रुतायुने भीमसेनकी छातीमें नौ बाण मारे || ६८ ह || कालिड्रबाणाभिहतत्तोत्रार्दित इव द्विप:
sañjaya uvāca |
bhīmasenam ameyātmā pratyavidhyat stanāntare |
kāliṅga-bāṇābhihata-totrārdita iva dvipaḥ |
Sañjaya said: The Kalinga king Śrutāyu, a man of immeasurable spirit and strength, seeing Bhīmasena advancing, struck him in the region of the chest with arrows. Bhīma, pierced by the Kalinga shafts, appeared like an elephant goaded and tormented by the driver’s hook.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses the simile of an elephant tormented by a goad to highlight a moral dynamic of warfare: injury provokes greater fury, and violence tends to intensify once initiated. It implicitly warns that martial valor, when met with harm, can drive combatants toward escalating retaliation, testing restraint and dharma amid battle.
Sañjaya reports that the Kalinga king Śrutāyu, seeing Bhīma coming forward, shoots him in the chest with arrows. Bhīma, wounded by those Kalinga arrows, is compared to an elephant prodded by a goad—suggesting he is roused into a powerful, possibly more dangerous response.