Shloka 109
इत्युक्त्वा तांस्तदा हंसान् स शेते शरतल्पग: । एवं कुरूणां पतिते शृज्गे भीष्मे महौजसि
ity uktvā tāṁs tadā haṁsān sa śete śaratālpagaḥ | evaṁ kurūṇāṁ patite śṛṅge bhīṣme mahaujasī ||
Sañjaya said: Having spoken thus to those swans, Bhīṣma—lying upon his bed of arrows—then remained at rest. Thus, when the mighty Bhīṣma, the great strength and crowning eminence of the Kurus, had fallen, the Kuru cause was as though its very summit had collapsed, marking a grave moral and strategic turning point in the war.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores how the fall of a single dharmic yet war-bound elder can signal the collapse of a dynasty’s moral and strategic ‘summit’; it highlights impermanence and the heavy ethical cost of fratricidal war.
After addressing the swans, Bhīṣma remains lying on the arrow-bed; Sañjaya frames this as the moment when the Kurus’ foremost support—Bhīṣma—has fallen, indicating a decisive shift in the war’s course.