Shloka 181
इति श्रीमहा भारते द्रोणपर्वणि घटोत्कचवधपर्वणि रात्रियुद्धे कृष्णवाक्ये एकाशीत्यधिकशततमो<ध्याय:
iti śrīmahābhārate droṇaparvaṇi ghaṭotkacavadhaparvaṇi rātriyuddhe kṛṣṇavākye ekāśītyadhikaśatatamo 'dhyāyaḥ
Thus, in the Śrī Mahābhārata, within the Droṇa Parva—specifically in the section on the slaying of Ghaṭotkaca—during the night-battle, in the chapter known as “Kṛṣṇa’s words,” ends the one-hundred-and-eighty-first chapter. The colophon frames the episode as a morally charged turning point of the nocturnal war, where counsel and strategy are foregrounded amid escalating violence.
श्रीवायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The colophon highlights that decisive counsel (Kṛṣṇa’s guidance) operates within morally fraught wartime conditions—especially the night-battle—where dharma is tested by necessity, strategy, and the urgency to protect one’s side.
This is an end-of-chapter marker stating that the 181st chapter concludes within Droṇa Parva, in the episode concerning Ghaṭotkaca’s death, set during the night-battle and associated with Kṛṣṇa’s speech.