Shloka 81
भीष्मभीमसमागमः — Bhīṣma–Bhīma Strategic Engagement and Counsel to the King
इति श्रीमहाभारते भीष्मपर्वणि भीष्मवधपर्वणि सप्तमयुद्धदिवसे एकाशीतितमो<ध्याय:
iti śrīmahābhārate bhīṣmaparvaṇi bhīṣmavadhaparvaṇi saptamayuddhadivase ekāśītitamo 'dhyāyaḥ
Thus, in the revered Mahābhārata, within the Bhīṣma Parva—specifically in the section concerning the fall of Bhīṣma—on the seventh day of the war, ends the eighty-first chapter. This colophon marks a formal closure, setting the tale within its ethical frame: the war’s growing inevitability and the nearing fall of a great elder whose life embodies vows, duty, and tragic consequence.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
This line is a colophon rather than a doctrinal verse: it teaches how the epic frames events within dharma and time—by formally locating the chapter in the Bhīṣma Parva and the ‘Bhīṣma-vadha’ section, it underscores that even the fall of a righteous elder occurs within the larger moral and karmic unfolding of war.
The text is closing a chapter: it states that, in the Mahābhārata’s Bhīṣma Parva, within the portion dealing with Bhīṣma’s fall, on the seventh day of battle, the eighty-first chapter concludes.