Shloka 16
तदनन्तर अस्त्रसमूहोंके प्रहारसे भरा हुआ वह युद्धस्थल ऐसा प्रतीत होने लगा, मानो वहाँ किरणोंका जाल बिछ गया हो। कर्ण और अर्जुनने अपने बाणसमूहोंकी वर्षासे आकाशमें तिलभर भी अवकाश नहीं रहने दिया ।।
tad-anantaraṃ bāṇa-jālaika-mayaṃ mahāntaṃ sarve 'drasan kuravaḥ somakāś ca | nānyat kiṃcid dadṛśuḥ sampatad vai bāṇāndhakāre tumule 'timātram ||
Sañjaya said: Thereafter the battlefield, struck by dense clusters of missiles, looked as though a net of rays had been spread across it. Karṇa and Arjuna, pouring forth volleys of arrows, left not even a finger’s breadth of open space in the sky. Seeing a vast, single mesh of arrows, the Kurus and the Somakas trembled in fear; in that exceedingly tumultuous darkness made of arrows, they could see nothing else falling at all.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how unchecked martial power can overwhelm perception itself—turning the battlefield into an ‘arrow-darkness’ that induces fear in all onlookers. Ethically, it underscores the terrifying cost of war: even valor and skill, when unleashed without restraint, create collective dread and obscurity rather than clarity.
Sañjaya describes Karṇa and Arjuna exchanging such dense volleys of arrows that the sky appears filled with a single net of missiles. The Kurus and Somakas, witnessing this near-total saturation of the air, tremble; amid the tumult they can see nothing else, as if the scene is darkened by arrows.