Shloka 56
शरार्चिषा गाण्डिवेनाहमेक: सर्वान् कुरून् बाह्निकांश्चवाभिहत्य । हिमात्यये कक्षगतो यथाग्नि- स्तथा दहेयं सगणान् प्रसह,“मैं अकेला ही बाणोंकी ज्वालासे युक्त गाण्डीव धनुषके द्वारा समस्त कौरवों और बाह्लिकोंको दल-बलसहित मारकर ग्रीष्म-ऋतुमें सूखे काठमें लगी हुई आगके समान सबको भस्म कर डालूँगा
sañjaya uvāca |
śarārciṣā gāṇḍīvenāham ekaḥ sarvān kurūn bāhlikāṃś caivābhihatya |
himātyaye kakṣagato yathāgniḥ tathā daheyaṃ sagaṇān prasaha ||
Sañjaya said: “I alone, with the Gāṇḍīva bow blazing with the fire of arrows, will strike down all the Kurus and the Bāhlikas together with their companies; and, like a fire that has caught in a thicket at the end of winter, I will forcibly burn them all to ashes.” In ethical tone, the verse conveys the warrior’s overwhelming confidence and the escalation of martial resolve, where prowess is framed as an all-consuming force—raising the Mahābhārata’s recurring tension between heroic duty in war and the destructive excess that war unleashes.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how martial confidence can become totalizing—likened to wildfire—illustrating the epic’s ethical tension: kṣatriya duty demands battle, yet unchecked wrath and pride risk turning duty into indiscriminate destruction.
Sañjaya reports a warrior’s declaration of overwhelming intent: armed with the Gāṇḍīva and ‘flaming’ arrows, he claims he will single-handedly slay the Kurus and Bāhlikas with their forces, burning them like a fire spreading through dry thickets at winter’s end.