Mahabharata — Shalya Parva, Shloka 6
अध्याय २२ — अमर्याद-युद्धवर्णन
Unrestrained Battle Description and Śakuni’s Rear Assault
बाणभूतामपश्याम पृथिवीं पृथिवीपते । दुर्योधनेन प्रकृतां क्षिप्रहस्तेन धन्विना,पृथ्वीपते! हमने देखा कि शीघ्रतापूर्वक हाथ चलानेवाले धनुर्धर वीर दुर्योधनने सारी रणभूमिको बाणमयी कर दिया है
bāṇabhūtām apaśyāma pṛthivīṁ pṛthivīpate | duryodhanena prakṛtāṁ kṣiprahastena dhanvinā ||
Sañjaya said: O king, we saw the earth—indeed the whole battlefield—turned into a dense mass of arrows, wrought by Duryodhana, that swift-handed archer.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how extraordinary skill in war can magnify destruction when driven by unchecked ambition and hostility; prowess itself is ethically neutral, but its use shapes the moral weight of the act and the suffering it causes.
Sañjaya reports to King Dhṛtarāṣṭra that Duryodhana, shooting with great speed, has so covered the battlefield with arrows that the very earth appears ‘made of arrows’—a vivid image of the intensity of combat.