Shloka 27
राजन्! तब विराटने मद्रराजको पहले नौ, फिर तिहत्तर और पुनः सौ तीखे बाणोंसे घायल करके बदला चुकाया ।। तस्य मद्राधिपो हत्वा चतुरो रथवाजिन: । सूतं ध्वजं च समरे शराभ्यां संन्यपातयत्,तदनन्तर मद्रराजने विराटके रथके चारों घोड़ोंको मारकर दो बाणोंसे समरांगणमें सारथि और ध्वजको भी काट गिराया
rājan! tataḥ virāṭena madrarājakaṃ pūrvaṃ nava, punaḥ trisaptatiṃ, punar api śataṃ tīkṣṇaiḥ śaraiḥ kṣatvā pratikāraṃ cakāra. tasya madrādhipo hatvā caturo rathavājinaḥ sūtaṃ dhvajaṃ ca samare śarābhyāṃ saṃnyapātayat. tadanantaraṃ madrarājena virāṭasya rathasya catvāro ’śvān hatvā dvābhyāṃ śarābhyāṃ samara-aṅgaṇe sārathiṃ dhvajaṃ ca chittvā nipātayāmāsa.
Sañjaya said: O King, then Virata repaid the Madra ruler in kind—first wounding him with nine sharp arrows, then with seventy-three, and again with a hundred. In response, the lord of Madra slew Virata’s four chariot-horses and, with two arrows, struck down in the battle both the charioteer and the standard.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the battlefield logic of kṣatriya-dharma as practiced in epic warfare: injury is answered with counter-injury, and tactical strikes (horses, charioteer, banner) are used to disable an opponent’s fighting capacity. It implicitly shows how quickly violence escalates when honor is framed as repayment.
Virata wounds the Madra king with successive volleys of arrows (9, then 73, then 100). The Madra king retaliates by killing Virata’s four chariot-horses and then felling the charioteer and the banner with two arrows, effectively crippling Virata’s chariot in the fight.