Shloka 4
Chapter 136: Pandava Counter-Encirclement and the Vāyavya-Astra Disruption
तं भीमो दशभिर्बाणै: प्रत्यविध्यदजिद्वागै: । पुनर्विव्याध सप्तत्या शराणां नतपर्वणाम्,तब भीमने सीधे जानेवाले दस बाणोंसे कर्णको मारकर बदला चुकाया। तत्पश्चात् झुकी हुई गाँठवाले सत्तर बाणोंद्वारा पुनः कर्णको बींध डाला
taṁ bhīmo daśabhir bāṇaiḥ pratyavidhyad ajidvāgaiḥ | punar vivyādha saptatyā śarāṇāṁ nataparvaṇām ||
Sañjaya said: Bhīma repaid Karṇa by striking him with ten swift, unerring arrows. Then, pressing the attack again, he pierced Karṇa with seventy arrows whose joints were bent—an escalation that reflects the relentless reciprocity of violence on the battlefield, where retaliation and prowess drive the combatants onward.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how, in war, actions invite immediate counteraction: retaliation becomes a driving force, and martial excellence is expressed through measured yet escalating response. Ethically, it underscores the Mahābhārata’s recurring tension between kṣatriya valor and the tragic momentum of violence once conflict is embraced.
Sañjaya narrates that Bhīma strikes Karṇa in return with ten fast arrows, and then wounds him again with seventy specially jointed (barbed/bent-knotted) arrows, intensifying the exchange in their battlefield encounter.