Shloka 16
Adhyāya 141 — Night duels: Śaineya and Bhūriśravas; Droṇi and Ghaṭotkaca; Bhīma and Duryodhana
तलशब्दरवैश्वैव त्रासयेतां परस्परम् । शरजालैश्व विविधैस्त्रासयामासतुर्मुधे
talaśabdaravaiś caiva trāsayetāṃ parasparam | śarajālaiś ca vividhaiḥ trāsayām āsatur mudhe ||
Sañjaya said: With the clamor of their palm-leaf signals and the roar of their cries, the two hosts struck fear into one another; and in that battle they kept terrifying each other with diverse nets of arrows.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the self-reinforcing cycle of violence in war: fear is generated mutually, and the very means used to dominate—noise, signals, and volleys of arrows—also deepen collective terror, obscuring ethical clarity and compassion.
Sañjaya describes an intense phase of combat where opposing warriors intimidate one another with loud martial sounds and then with sustained, varied showers of arrows, portraying the battlefield as a space of escalating dread and relentless attack.