Shloka 51
दुर्योधनस्तु विंशत्या कृप: शारद्वतस्त्रिभि: । कृतवर्माथ दशभि: कर्ण: पञ्चाशता शरै:,दुर्योधनने बीस, शरद्वानके पुत्र कृपाचार्यने तीन, कृतवर्माने दस, कर्णने पचास, दुःशासनने सौ तथा वृषसेनने सात पैने बाणोंद्वारा शीघ्र ही सब ओरसे सात्यकिको घायल कर दिया
sañjaya uvāca |
duryodhanas tu viṁśatyā kṛpaḥ śāradvatas tribhiḥ |
kṛtavarmātha daśabhiḥ karṇaḥ pañcāśatā śaraiḥ ||
Sañjaya said: Duryodhana struck (Sātyaki) with twenty arrows; Kṛpa, the son of Śaradvat, with three; Kṛtavarman with ten; and Karṇa with fifty shafts. Thus, assailed from every side by these foremost warriors, Sātyaki was swiftly wounded—an image of the war’s relentless pressure, where valor is tested amid coordinated aggression rather than single combat alone.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how, in war, coordinated force can overwhelm even a capable warrior; ethically, it underscores the Mahābhārata’s recurring tension between valor and the brutal, often collective nature of battlefield violence, prompting reflection on the costs of conflict and the erosion of restraint.
Sañjaya reports that leading Kaurava warriors—Duryodhana, Kṛpa, Kṛtavarman, and Karṇa—shoot specified numbers of arrows at a single opponent (contextually Sātyaki in this passage’s surrounding narrative), quickly wounding him through a multi-sided assault.