Shloka 24
Irāvān-nidhana-anantaraṃ Ghaṭotkaca-nādaḥ
After Irāvān’s fall: Ghaṭotkaca’s roar and the clash with Duryodhana
स तया वीरघातिन्या गदया गदिनां वर: । गौतमस्य हयान् हत्वा सारथिं च न्यपातयत्,गदाधारियोंमें श्रेष्ठ चेकितानने उस वीरघातिनी गदासे कृपाचार्यके घोड़ोंको मारकर उनके सारथिको भी धराशायी कर दिया
sa tayā vīraghātinyā gadayā gadināṃ varaḥ | gautamasya hayān hatvā sārathiṃ ca nyapātayat |
Sañjaya said: With that hero-slaying mace, Cekitāna—foremost among mace-bearers—killed the horses of Gautama (Kṛpa) and struck down his charioteer as well. The episode lays bare the brutal efficiency of battlefield tactics: by crippling mobility through horse and driver, a contest may be decided, even as it sharpens the moral tension between martial necessity and war’s harsh cost.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how war rewards tactical decisiveness—disabling an opponent’s chariot by killing horses and the charioteer—while implicitly pointing to the moral weight of such actions, a recurring tension in the Mahābhārata between duty in battle and the suffering it entails.
Sañjaya reports that Cekitāna, renowned among mace-fighters, uses his mace to kill Kṛpa’s (called Gautama) horses and to knock down the charioteer, thereby crippling Kṛpa’s chariot and combat effectiveness.