Shloka 27
कर्णार्जुनयुद्ध-प्रवृत्तिः
Renewal of the Karṇa–Arjuna Engagement at Day’s End
अपने कुलको आनन्दित करनेवाले नकुलने भी प्रयत्नपूर्वक उत्तम धनुषको खींचकर अनायास ही दूरतक जानेवाले नाराचोंद्वारा बहुत-से हाथियोंका वध कर डाला ।। ततः पाञ्चालशैनेयौ द्रौपदेया: प्रभद्रका: । शिखण्डी च महानागान् सिषिचु: शरवृष्टिभि:,तदनन्तर धृष्टद्युम्न, सात्यकि, द्रौपदीके पुत्र, प्रभद्रकगण तथा शिखण्डीने भी उन महान् गजराजोंपर अपने बाणोंकी वर्षा की
tataḥ pāñcāla-śaineyau draupadeyāḥ prabhadrakāḥ | śikhaṇḍī ca mahānāgān siṣicuḥ śaravṛṣṭibhiḥ ||
Sañjaya said: Then the Pāñcālas and the Śaineya, along with Draupadī’s sons, the Prabhadraka warriors, and Śikhaṇḍī, showered those mighty lordly elephants with a rain of arrows. The scene underscores the relentless momentum of battle—where disciplined coordination and martial resolve are turned toward the destruction of formidable war-beasts, raising the ethical tension between strategic necessity and the grim cost of war.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights coordinated martial effort in war and implicitly points to the Mahābhārata’s ethical tension: even when fighting under kṣatriya-duty and strategic necessity, the destruction inflicted—here upon powerful war elephants—remains a grave and sobering consequence of conflict.
Sañjaya reports that multiple Pāṇḍava-aligned forces—Pāñcālas, Śaineya (Sātyaki), Draupadī’s sons, the Prabhadrakas, and Śikhaṇḍī—jointly unleash a dense barrage of arrows against the enemy’s great elephants, pressing the battle forward by targeting a key arm of the opposing army.