Shloka 19
भीष्मरथाभिमुख्यं — Arjuna’s advance with Śikhaṇḍin; Duḥśāsana’s interception
प्रजानाथ! उस युद्धस्थलमें जहाँ-तहाँ सब योद्धा झुकी हुई गाँठवाले नाना प्रकारके भयंकर बाणोंद्वारा अपने विपक्षियोंको परलोकके अतिथि बनाने लगे ।। रथास्तु रथिभिहीना हतसारथयस्तथा । विप्रद्रुता श्वाः समरे दिशो जग्मु: समन्ततः,कितने ही रथ रथियों और सारथियोंसे शून्य हो भागते हुए घोड़ोंके साथ सम्पूर्ण दिशाओंमें चक्कर काट रहे थे
prajānātha! tasmin yuddhasthale yatra-tatra sarve yoddhāḥ namra-parvaṇāṁ nānā-vidhānāṁ bhīṣaṇānāṁ bāṇānāṁ prahāraiḥ sva-pakṣīyān vipakṣān paralokasyātithīn akaruvan. rathās tu rathibhir hīnā hatasārathayas tathā, vipradrutāś śvāḥ samare diśo jagmuḥ samantataḥ.
Sañjaya said: O lord of men, on that battlefield the warriors everywhere, striking with many kinds of dreadful arrows with bent joints, were sending their opponents to the next world as guests of Death. And many chariots—bereft of their chariot-warriors and with their charioteers slain—were carried about by terrified, runaway horses, wheeling in all directions across the field.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the stark impermanence of life in war: prowess and status collapse instantly, and death becomes the inevitable ‘host’ receiving those struck down. It implicitly cautions that martial duty (kṣatriya-dharma) operates within a grim moral horizon where consequences are irreversible.
Sañjaya reports to the king that the battle has become chaotic and lethal: warriors are killing opponents with fearsome arrows, while riderless chariots—charioteers slain and fighters gone—are dragged by panicked horses, circling and scattering in every direction.