Shloka 180
इति श्रीमहाभारते द्रोणपर्वणि घटोत्कचवधपर्वणि रात्रियुद्धे घटोत्कचवधे श्रीकृष्णहर्षेडशीत्यधिकशततमो<ध्याय:
iti śrīmahābhārate droṇaparvaṇi ghaṭotkacavadhaparvaṇi rātriyuddhe ghaṭotkacavadhe śrīkṛṣṇaharṣeḍaśītyadhikaśatatamo 'dhyāyaḥ
Thus, in the Śrī Mahābhārata, within the Droṇa Parva—specifically the section on the slaying of Ghaṭotkaca, in the account of the night-battle—ends the one-hundred-and-eighty-second chapter, marked by Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s exultation. The colophon frames the episode as a decisive moral and strategic turning point in the war, where the night’s violence and extraordinary weapons culminate in consequences that reshape the balance of dharma and survival on the battlefield.
श्रीवायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
As a colophon, the verse does not teach through direct instruction; it frames the episode’s ethical weight: war’s extreme measures and their consequences are recorded as pivotal, reminding the reader that strategic necessity, dharmic tension, and irreversible outcomes coexist in the Mahābhārata’s battlefield narrative.
This is the closing marker of the chapter in Droṇa Parva describing the night-battle and the slaying of Ghaṭotkaca, identified as a chapter associated with Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s exultation; it signals the end of that narrated unit and situates it within the larger parvan structure.