Shloka 67
शल्यस्य पाण्डवसेनापीडनम् — Śalya’s Assault on the Pāṇḍava Host
with Omens and Bhīma’s Counter
ते सेने भृशसंतप्ते वध्यमाने परस्परम्
te sene bhṛśa-santapte vadhyamāne parasparam
Sañjaya said: When those two armies, grievously tormented, were striking one another down in mutual slaughter, the battlefield became a scene of intense suffering and relentless reciprocity of violence—each side both agent and victim in the same cycle of war.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the ethical tragedy of war: violence becomes reciprocal and self-perpetuating, producing shared suffering. It implicitly warns that when conflict escalates into mutual killing, distinctions of victory and loss blur under the weight of collective anguish.
Sañjaya describes the battlefield condition: both armies are intensely distressed and are killing each other in close, mutual combat. The line functions as a narrative bridge emphasizing the ferocity and pain of the ongoing engagement.