Shloka 44
आजपघानोरसि क्रुद्धो नवभिर्निशितै: शरै: । महाराज! उस समय शिखण्डीने कुपित होकर भरतवंशियोंके पितामह भीष्मजीकी छातीमें नौ पैने बाण मारे || ४३ ह ।। स तेनाभिहत: संख्ये भीष्म: कुरुपितामह:
ājapaghānorasi kruddho navabhir niśitaiḥ śaraiḥ | mahārāja! tadā śikhaṇḍī kupitaḥ bharatavaṁśināṁ pitāmahaṁ bhīṣmaṁ urasi nava tīkṣṇaśarān avādayat || sa tenābhihataḥ saṅkhye bhīṣmaḥ kurupitāmahaḥ ||
Sañjaya said: O King, at that moment Śikhaṇḍī, inflamed with anger, struck the grandsire of the Bharatas—Bhīṣma—on the chest with nine keen arrows. Thus wounded in the thick of battle, Bhīṣma, the revered patriarch of the Kurus, endured the assault. The scene underscores the tragic ethics of war: even the most venerable are not spared when vows, strategy, and destiny converge on the battlefield.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the moral tension of dharma in war: reverence for elders and ideals of honorable combat are strained by strategic necessity and prior vows. Even a revered figure like Bhīṣma becomes vulnerable when the battlefield logic of duty, destiny, and tactical advantage takes over.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that Śikhaṇḍī, enraged, shoots nine sharp arrows into Bhīṣma’s chest during the battle. Bhīṣma, the Kuru patriarch, is thus wounded amid the fighting, marking the intensification of the effort to bring him down.