Shloka 72
Cakravyūha-saṃkalpaḥ, Saṃśaptaka-āhvānaṃ, Saubhadra-vikrīḍitam
Drona Parva, Adhyāya 32
एवमेष महारौद्र: क्षयार्थ सर्वधन्विनाम्
evameṣa mahāraudraḥ kṣayārthaṃ sarvadhanvinām
Sañjaya said: “Thus this exceedingly dreadful onslaught has arisen, intended for the destruction of all the bowmen.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how war, once unleashed, can become indiscriminate and self-consuming—aimed not at restoring dharma but at annihilating the very community of warriors. Ethically, it warns of escalation: violence tends to expand beyond initial aims and turns into collective devastation.
Sañjaya, narrating the battlefield events, describes a phase of combat so fierce that it appears designed to bring about the destruction of all archers—signaling an intensification of slaughter and the grim momentum of the Kurukṣetra war.