Shloka 121
इति श्रीमहाभारते भीष्मपर्वणि भीष्मवधपर्वणि दुर्योधन प्रति भीष्मवाक्ये एकविंशत्यधिकशततमो<ध्याय:
iti śrīmahābhārate bhīṣmaparvaṇi bhīṣmavadhaparvaṇi duryodhana prati bhīṣmavākye ekaviṃśatyadhikaśatatamo 'dhyāyaḥ
Sañjaya said: Thus ends, in the Śrī Mahābhārata, within the Bhīṣma Parva—specifically in the section concerning the slaying of Bhīṣma—the discourse of Bhīṣma addressed to Duryodhana: the one hundred and twenty-first chapter. This closing formula frames the episode as a moral and strategic counsel given amid war, marking the completion of a unit of instruction and narrative before the account proceeds further.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
This line is a colophon rather than a doctrinal verse: it signals the completion of a chapter that contained Bhīṣma’s counsel to Duryodhana. Its ethical function is to frame the preceding instruction as authoritative guidance delivered within the pressures of war and to mark a transition to the next narrative unit.
Sañjaya concludes the chapter by formally stating its placement in the epic (Mahābhārata), its larger book (Bhīṣma Parva), its sub-episode (Bhīṣma-vadha section), and its topic (Bhīṣma’s words to Duryodhana), identifying it as the 121st chapter.