Shloka 27
Bhagadatta’s Astra and the Fall of the Prāgjyotiṣa King (भगदत्त-वधः / वैष्णवास्त्र-प्रसङ्गः)
आर्य! तदनन्तर प्राग्ज्योतिषनरेश राजा भगदत्तने भी विपक्षीकी उस बाण-वर्षाका निवारण करके महाबाहु अर्जुन और श्रीकृष्णको अपने बाणोंसे घायल कर दिया ।। ततस्तु शरजालेन महताभ्यवकीर्य तौ । चोदयामास तं नागं वधायाच्युतपार्थयो:,फिर उनके ऊपर बाणोंका महान् जाल-सा बिछाकर श्रीकृष्ण और अर्जुन दोनोंके वधके लिये उस गजराजको आगे बढ़ाया
sañjaya uvāca | tataḥ tu śarajālena mahatābhyavakīrya tau | codayāmāsa taṃ nāgaṃ vadhāyācyutapārthayoḥ ||
Sanjaya said: Then King Bhagadatta, having covered both Krishna (Acyuta) and Arjuna (Pārtha) with a vast net-like shower of arrows, urged his great war-elephant forward, intent on slaying them. The episode highlights how, in the frenzy of battle, martial prowess is directed toward decisive violence, while the listener is left to weigh the ethical tension between duty in war and the deliberate pursuit of killing revered opponents.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds intention (vadhāya—‘for killing’) within the battlefield duty of a warrior: even when fighting is sanctioned by the context of war, the deliberate resolve to destroy revered opponents intensifies the ethical weight of one’s actions and invites reflection on dharma amid violence.
Bhagadatta blankets Krishna and Arjuna with a dense barrage of arrows like a net and then drives his war-elephant forward, aiming to kill them both.