Shloka 30
तथैव च पुन: क्रुद्धों भारद्वाज: प्रतापवान् | वसुदानस्य भल्लेन शिर: कायादपाहरत्
tathaiva ca punaḥ kruddho bhāradvājaḥ pratāpavān | vasudānasya bhallena śiraḥ kāyād apāharat |
Sañjaya said: Just so, once again, the mighty Bhāradvāja (Droṇa), inflamed with wrath, with a sharp bhalla-arrow struck down Vasudāna, severing and carrying off his head from his body. The episode underscores how, in the fury of battle, prowess and anger combine to produce swift and irreversible consequences, where the warrior’s duty is enacted through lethal skill rather than restraint.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the grim moral texture of battlefield dharma: when warriors are seized by anger, their trained prowess can yield immediate, irrevocable harm. It implicitly cautions that wrath (krodha) amplifies violence, even while the narrative frames the act within the accepted duties of war.
Sañjaya reports that Droṇa, called Bhāradvāja, again becomes enraged and shoots Vasudāna with a bhalla-arrow, severing his head from his body—an emphatic description of Droṇa’s lethal effectiveness in the ongoing battle.