Shloka 25
आपूर्यते कौरवी चाप्यभीक्षणं सेना हासौ सुभृशं हन्यमाना । धनंजयस्याशनितुल्यवेगै- ग्रेस््ता शरै: काउचनबर्हिबाजै:,अर्जुनके बाण वज्रके समान वेगशाली हैं। उनमें सोने और मयूरपिच्छके पंख लगे हैं। उन बाणोंद्वारा आक्रान्त हुई यह कौरव-सेना अत्यन्त मार पड़नेके कारण बारंबार आर्तनाद कर रही है
āpūryate kauravī cāpy abhīkṣṇaṁ senā hāsau subhṛśaṁ hanyamānā | dhanaṁjayasya aśanitulya-vegair agreṣṭhaiḥ śaraiḥ kāñcana-barhibājaiḥ ||
Bhīmasena said: “Again and again the Kaurava host is being overwhelmed; struck down with relentless severity, it raises loud cries of anguish. For Dhanañjaya’s foremost arrows—moving with the speed of a thunderbolt, adorned with gold and peacock-feathered fletching—are crushing it.”
भीमसेन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the overwhelming force of disciplined martial skill and its immediate moral consequence: mass suffering. It implicitly reminds the listener that prowess in war, even when aligned with one’s side, produces real anguish—an ethical tension central to the Mahābhārata’s portrayal of kṣatriya-dharma.
Bhīma describes the battlefield situation: Arjuna (Dhanañjaya) is releasing superb, thunderbolt-swift arrows—gold-adorned and peacock-fletched—by which the Kaurava army is repeatedly battered and cries out in distress.