Shloka 11
आर्य! तब उन महारथियोंने रथसेनाद्वारा उसे कोष्ठमें आबद्ध-सा करके उसके ऊपर नाना प्रकारके चिह्नवाले समूह-के-समूह बाण बरसाने आरम्भ किये ।। तान्यन्तरिक्षे चिच्छेद पौत्रस्ते निशितै: शरैः । तांश्वैव प्रतिविव्याध तदद्भुतमिवाभवत्,परंतु आपके उस वीर पौत्रने अपने पैने बाणोंद्वारा शत्रुओंके उन सायकसमूहोंको आकाशमें ही काट दिया और उन सभी महारथियोंको घायल भी कर डाला-यह एक अद्भुत-सी बात हुई
sañjaya uvāca | ārya! tadā te mahārathā rathasenayā taṃ koṣṭheṣv iva ābaddhaṃ kṛtvā tasya upari nānā-cihnair yuktān śara-saṃghān saṃghān varṣayām āsuḥ || tāny antarīkṣe ciccheda pautras te niśitaiḥ śaraiḥ | tāṃś caiva prativivyādha tad adbhutam ivābhavat ||
Sañjaya said: O noble one, then those great chariot-warriors, hemming your grandson in as though within a confined enclosure by means of their chariot-formations, began to shower upon him volley after volley of arrows marked with many different emblems. But your valiant grandson, with his keen shafts, cut those flights of missiles down in mid-air and in the same moment struck back and wounded those very warriors—an occurrence that seemed almost wondrous amid the grim logic of battle.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights kṣatriya-dharma in its battlefield form: disciplined courage under encirclement, mastery over weapons, and the ethic of answering force with measured counter-force. It also underscores how extraordinary skill can momentarily transform fear and chaos into awe, even within a morally fraught war.
A group of elite chariot-warriors boxes in the king’s grandson using chariot formations and showers him with massed arrows. The grandson responds by cutting the incoming arrows in the sky and then counterattacking, wounding the attackers—an action described as astonishing.