Shloka 25
Droṇa-parva Adhyāya 95 — Sātyaki’s Breakthrough and the Routing of Allied Contingents
अर्जुनके उन बाणसमूहोंसे श्रुतायु और अच्युतायुके मस्तक कट गये। भुजाएँ छिज्न- भिन्न हो गयीं। वे दोनों आँधीके उखाड़े हुए वृक्षोंके समान धराशायी हो गये ।। श्रुतायुषश्च निधन वधश्चैवाच्युतायुष: । लोकविस्मापनमभूत् समुद्रस्थेव शोषणम्,श्रुतायु और अच्युतायुका वह वध समुद्रशोषणके समान सब लोगोंको आश्र॒र्यमें डालनेवाला था
arjunake una bāṇasamūhoṃse śrutāyu aura acyutāyuke mastaka kaṭa gaye | bhujāeṃ chinna-bhinna ho gayīṃ | ve donoṃ āṃdhīke ukhāṛe hue vṛkṣoṃke samāna dharāśāyī ho gaye || śrutāyuṣaś ca nidhanaṃ vadhaś caivācyutāyuṣaḥ | lokavismāpanaṃ abhūt samudrastha iva śoṣaṇam ||
Sañjaya said: Struck by Arjuna’s volleys of arrows, the heads of Śrutāyu and Acyutāyu were severed and their arms were mangled. Like trees torn up by a storm, both warriors fell to the earth. Their slaying—Śrutāyu’s death and Acyutāyu’s fall—astonished all onlookers, as if the very ocean were being dried up.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the awe-inspiring, almost unimaginable power displayed in righteous warfare: when a warrior acts with decisive skill in the battlefield role (kṣatriya-dharma), the outcome can appear world-shaking to witnesses—yet it remains part of the grim moral landscape of war, where prowess and death coexist.
Sañjaya reports that Arjuna’s arrows strike down two opposing warriors, Śrutāyu and Acyutāyu, severing their heads and mangling their arms; they collapse like storm-uprooted trees. Their deaths shock the assembled fighters, compared to the impossible sight of the ocean drying up.