Shloka 26
अध्याय ६० — कर्णस्य पाञ्चाल-सोमक-निग्रहः
Karna’s Suppression of the Panchala–Somaka Forces
तस्य दुःशासनो बाहुं सव्यं विव्याध मारिष । स तेन रुक्मपुड्खेन भल्लेनानतपर्वणा
tasya duḥśāsano bāhuṃ savyaṃ vivyādha māriṣa | sa tena rukmapuṅkhena bhallena ānataparvaṇā ||
Sañjaya dit : Ô noble seigneur, Duḥśāsana lui perça le bras gauche. D’une flèche à large pointe, empennée d’or et au fût légèrement courbé, il le frappa.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores how war reduces moral life to bodily injury and retaliation: even when framed as kṣatriya conduct, repeated acts of wounding reveal the ethical erosion that accompanies prolonged conflict.
Sañjaya reports a battlefield moment in which Duḥśāsana strikes an opponent’s left arm with a bhalla arrow described as gold-fletched and structurally bent at the joint, highlighting the immediacy and severity of the combat.