Shloka 53
मार्गणैरभिविव्याध घन सूर्य इवांशुभि: । तब कर्ण भीमसेनके मायावी पुत्रको अपने बाणोंद्वारा आकाशमें उसी प्रकार बींधने लगा, जैसे सूर्य अपनी किरणोंद्वारा मेघोंको विद्ध कर देते हैं ।। ५२ ई ।। तस्य सर्वान् हयान् हत्वा संछिद्य शतधा रथम्
mārgaṇair abhivivyādha ghanaḥ sūrya ivāṃśubhiḥ | tasya sarvān hayān hatvā saṃchidya śatadhā ratham ||
Sañjaya said: With his arrows he pierced him repeatedly, like the sun piercing through dense clouds with its rays. Then, after killing all his horses, he shattered the chariot into a hundred pieces—an image of relentless martial force where skill and fury eclipse restraint, and the battlefield’s ethic becomes one of decisive destruction rather than reconciliation.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores how, in the war’s moral universe, prowess and decisive action become the operative ‘dharma’ of the battlefield: the warrior disables the enemy’s mobility (horses, chariot) to end the threat swiftly. It also hints at the tragic ethical compression of war—where the aim is not persuasion but incapacitation.
Sañjaya describes a fighter being struck again and again with arrows, compared to the sun’s rays piercing dense clouds. The attacker then kills the opponent’s horses and breaks the chariot into many pieces, effectively neutralizing the enemy’s fighting platform.