Shloka 18
Śalya–Bhīma Gadāyuddham (मद्रराज-भीमसेन गदायुद्धम्)
निहतान् प्राणिन: संख्ये द्रोणेन बलिना रणे । वहन्तीं पितृलोकाय शतशो राजसत्तम
nihatān prāṇinaḥ saṅkhye droṇena balinā raṇe | vahantīṃ pitṛlokāya śataśo rājasattama
Sañjaya said: “O best of kings, in the press of battle the mighty Droṇa slew living beings by the hundreds, sending them onward toward the world of the Fathers (Pitṛloka).”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the moral weight and inevitability of mass death in war: martial power, even when aligned with a warrior’s duty, becomes a force that rapidly carries many lives toward death and the ancestral realm, inviting reflection on the cost of conflict.
Sañjaya reports to the king that Droṇa, fighting with great strength, is slaying warriors in the battlefield in vast numbers—‘by the hundreds’—as though sending them onward to Pitṛloka.