Shloka 54
भीमसेनस्य गदायुद्ध-प्रभावः
The Battlefield Impact of Bhīmasena’s Mace Combat
इस प्रकार श्रीमह्मा भारत भीष्मपर्वके अन्तर्गत भीष्मवधपर्वमें द्वितीय दिनके युद्धमें कलिंगराजका वधविषयक चौवनवाँ अध्याय पूरा हुआ
iti prakāraṁ śrīmahābhārate bhīṣmaparvake antargataṁ bhīṣmavadhaparvaṇi dvitīya-dinake yuddhe kaliṅgarājasya vadha-viṣayakaḥ catuḥpañcāśattamo ’dhyāyaḥ pūrṇaḥ
Sanjaya said: Thus, in the sacred Mahabharata, within the Bhishma Parva—specifically in the section concerning Bhishma’s slaying—the fifty-fourth chapter, dealing with the killing of the king of Kalinga in the battle of the second day, is concluded.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
This verse is a colophon marking the end of a chapter; its implicit lesson is that the epic treats war and death as morally significant events to be recorded with clarity and accountability, segmenting the narrative so each act—such as a king’s slaying—stands as a distinct ethical and historical moment within the larger catastrophe.
Sanjaya closes the chapter by stating that the fifty-fourth chapter has ended, and that it concerned the killing of the king of Kalinga during the second day of the Kurukshetra war, within the Bhishma Parva and the Bhishma-slaying section.