Shloka 51
क्षुरप्रेण सुतीक्ष्णेन स हतः प्रापतद् भुवि । जनेश्वर! दूसरी ओर कुपित हुए भीमसेनने हँसते-हँसते बाणोंकी वर्षा करके सुदर्शनको ढक दिया। फिर क्रोधपूर्वक अट्टहास करते हुए उन्होंने उसके मस्तकको तीखे क्षुरप्रद्वारा धड़से काट लिया। सुदर्शन मरकर पृथ्वीपर गिर पड़ा || ४९-५० $ ।। तस्मिंस्तु निहते वीरे ततस्तस्य पदानुगा:
kṣurapreṇa sutīkṣṇena sa hataḥ prāpatad bhuvi | janeśvara! dvitīrī ora kupita hue bhīmasenane haṃsate-haṃsate bāṇoṃkī varṣā karke sudarśanako ḍhak diyā | punaḥ krodhapūrvak aṭṭahāsa karate hue unhoṃne usake mastakako tīkṣṇa kṣurapradvārā dhaṛ se kāṭ liyā | sudarśana marakara pṛthvīpar gir paṛā || 49-50 || tasmiṃstu nihate vīre tatastasyapadānugāḥ
Sañjaya said: Struck down by a razor-edged, exceedingly sharp arrow, he fell to the ground. O lord of men, on the other side Bhīmasena—though enraged—laughed as he showered arrows, completely covering Sudarśana. Then, roaring with wrathful laughter, he severed Sudarśana’s head with a keen razor-headed shaft. Sudarśana died and collapsed upon the earth. When that heroic warrior had been slain, then his followers…
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage highlights the grim ethic of kṣatriya warfare: prowess and resolve are praised, yet the scene also warns how anger and exultation (wrathful laughter) can accompany violence, underscoring the Mahābhārata’s recurring tension between duty in battle and the moral cost of rage.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that Bhīma overwhelms the warrior Sudarśana with a dense shower of arrows and then beheads him with a razor-headed shaft; Sudarśana falls dead, and the narration turns to what his followers do next.