Shloka 21
Droṇavadha-saṃniveśaḥ — The Convergence Toward Droṇa’s Fall
Book 7, Chapter 164
तब रणक्षेत्रमें कुपित हुए सात्यकिने भी तीखे क्षुरप्र नामक भल्लसे धनुर्धर सोमदत्तके धनुषको काट दिया ।। अथैनं रुक्मपुड्खानां शतेन नतपर्वणाम् | आचिनोद् बहुधा राजन् भग्नदंष्टमिव द्विपम्,राजन! तत्पश्चात् उन्होंने झुकी हुई गाँठ और सुवर्णमय पंखवाले सौ बाणोंसे टूटे दाँतवाले हाथीके समान सोमदत्तके शरीरको अनेक बार बींध दिया
atha enaṁ rukmapuṅkhānāṁ śatena nataparvaṇām | ācinod bahudhā rājan bhagnadaṁṣṭram iva dvipam ||
Sañjaya said: Then Sātyaki, enraged on the battlefield, struck Somadatta again and again with a hundred arrows—gold-feathered and jointed so as to bend—piercing him repeatedly, like an elephant whose tusks have been broken. The image underscores the brutal momentum of war: even a renowned warrior, once his strength is compromised, becomes a target for relentless assault, revealing how anger and martial duty can harden into merciless violence.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how, in war, anger and duty can drive relentless force against a weakened opponent; it implicitly warns that martial prowess is fragile and that combat often escalates beyond restraint once fury takes hold.
Sātyaki attacks Somadatta with a volley of one hundred gold-feathered, jointed arrows, piercing him repeatedly; Somadatta is compared to a tusk-broken elephant, emphasizing his battered, vulnerable state under sustained assault.