Shloka 663
Chapter 23: Śakuni Reports, Kaurava Advance, and Arjuna’s Penetration of the Host
तावकानां परेषां च परस्परवधैषिणाम् | फिर तो परस्पर वधकी इच्छावाले आपके और शत्रुपक्षके सैनिकोंमें प्राणोंका मोह छोड़कर भयंकर युद्ध होने लगा
tāvakānāṁ pareṣāṁ ca parasparavadheṣiṇām |
Sañjaya said: Among your warriors and those of the opposing side—each intent on the other’s destruction—attachment to life fell away, and a dreadful, mutual slaughter in battle commenced.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how, once combatants become fixed on mutual destruction, fear of death and attachment to life can be eclipsed by rage, duty, or fatal resolve—raising an ethical warning about the dehumanizing momentum of war.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that both armies—Kauravas and their opponents—are locked in a fierce engagement, each seeking the other’s death, and the battle turns terrifyingly intense.