Shloka 128
ततो घटोत्कचो बाणैर्दशभिगगॉतमीसुतम् । जघानोरसि संक्रुद्धों विषाग्निप्रतिमैर्दृढै:
tato ghaṭotkaco bāṇair daśabhir agautamīsutam | jaghānorasi saṅkruddho viṣāgnipratimair dṛḍhaiḥ ||
Sañjaya said: Then Ghaṭotkaca, inflamed with wrath, struck the son of Gautamī on the chest with ten firm arrows, like poison and fire in their deadly force. In the brutal economy of war, anger drives the combatants to ever more lethal means, and the scene underscores how violence escalates when restraint and discernment are eclipsed.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how anger (krodha) intensifies violence and leads to increasingly destructive action; it implicitly warns that when inner restraint is lost, ethical discernment in conflict is easily overwhelmed.
Sañjaya reports that Ghaṭotkaca, enraged, shoots ten powerful arrows into the chest of a warrior identified as the son of Gautamī, the arrows being described as deadly like poison and fire.