Shloka 63
पाण्डवोंका प्रिय करनेवाले उस राक्षसने प्राणशून्य हो जानेपर भी अपने बढ़ते हुए अत्यन्त विशाल शरीरसे गिरकर आपकी एक अक्षौहिणी सेनाको तुरंत नष्ट कर दिया ।। ततो मिश्रा: प्राणदन् सिंहनादै- भेर्य: शड्खा मुरजाश्वानकाश्च । दग्धां मायां निहतं राक्षसं च दृष्टवा हृष्टा: प्राणदन् कौरवेया:,तदनन्तर सिंहनादोंके साथ-साथ भेरी, शंख, नगाड़े और आनक आदि बाजे बजने लगे। माया भस्म हुई और राक्षस मारा गया--यह देखकर हर्षमें भरे हुए कौरव-सैनिक जोर-जोरसे गर्जना करने लगे
sañjaya uvāca |
pāṇḍavāṇāṃ priyaṃ kurvan sa rākṣasaḥ prāṇaśūnyo 'pi patitvā vardhamānena vipulena śarīreṇa tavaikām akṣauhiṇīṃ senāṃ kṣaṇena vināśayām āsa ||
tato miśrāḥ prāṇadan siṃhanādaiḥ bherīḥ śaṅkhā mṛdaṅgāś ca ānakāś ca |
dagdhāṃ māyāṃ nihataṃ rākṣasaṃ ca dṛṣṭvā hṛṣṭāḥ prāṇadan kauraveyāḥ ||
Sañjaya said: Even after his life had departed, that rākṣasa—intent on doing what was dear to the Pāṇḍavas—fell with his ever-growing, immensely massive body and in an instant destroyed one entire akṣauhiṇī of your army. Then, amid lion-like roars, kettledrums, conches, mṛdaṅgas and ānaka-drums were sounded. Seeing that Māyā had been burned to ashes and that the rākṣasa had been slain, the Kaurava soldiers, filled with exhilaration, shouted loudly in triumph.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how intention and allegiance shape the moral reading of an act in war: the rākṣasa’s final, even post-mortem, destructive fall is framed as service to the Pāṇḍavas, while the Kauravas respond not with reflection on the cost but with celebratory noise—showing how battlefield triumph can eclipse ethical sensitivity to mass loss.
Sañjaya reports that a rākṣasa, acting for the Pāṇḍavas’ benefit, collapses after death with an enormous, expanding body and crushes/destroys a full akṣauhiṇī of the Kaurava army. Immediately afterward, Kaurava troops, seeing that “Māyā” has been burned and the rākṣasa killed, roar in joy and sound conches and drums.