Shloka 346
शरैरवचकर्तोंग्रै: क्रुद्धो 5न्तक इव प्रजा: । तदनन्तर उस रफक्षेत्रमें उसने अपने भयंकर बाणोंद्वारा दूसरे-दूसरे सैकड़ों योद्धाओं, हाथियों और रथोंको उसी प्रकार काट डाला, जैसे क्रोधमें भरा हुआ यमराज समस्त प्राणियोंका विनाश करता है
śarair avacakar tīkṣṇaiḥ kruddho ’ntaka iva prajāḥ | tadanantaram asmin raṇakṣetre sa svakaiḥ bhīṣaṇaiḥ bāṇaiḥ parasparaṃ śatāni yoddhṝn hastinaḥ rathāṃś ca tathā ciccheda yathā krodhāviṣṭo yamarājaḥ sarvaprāṇināṃ vināśaṃ karoti |
Sañjaya said: With razor-edged, keen arrows, he—like Death incarnate when enraged—cut down living beings. Thereafter, on that battlefield, with his dreadful shafts he hewed apart, one after another, hundreds of warriors, elephants, and chariots, just as Yama, seized by wrath, brings destruction upon all creatures. The verse underscores the terrifying momentum of violence in war, where human agency begins to resemble impersonal, inexorable fate.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how, in the fury of battle, a warrior’s destructive power can appear like impersonal Death itself. Ethically, it points to the dehumanizing momentum of war: once violence escalates, individual lives—warriors, animals, and the instruments of war—are swept away as if by fate (Yama/Antaka), reminding the listener of impermanence and the grave cost of conflict.
Sañjaya describes a combatant (not named in this line) who, after a preceding event, unleashes a barrage of terrifying, sharp arrows on the battlefield, cutting down in succession hundreds of enemy warriors, elephants, and chariots. The scene is intensified through a simile: he acts like Antaka/Yama destroying beings.