Shloka 426
ततः शल्यस्य तनयं सहदेवोडसिनावधीत् । मद्रराज शल्यने अपने सामने आये हुए सहदेवके घोड़ोंको मार डाला। तब सहदेवने भी शल्यके पुत्रको तलवारसे मार गिराया
tataḥ śalyasya tanayaṃ sahadevo ’sina avadhīt | madrarājaḥ śalyaḥ svasyāgre samāyātān sahadevasya hayān jaghāna | tataḥ sahadevo ’pi śalyasya putraṃ khaḍgena nipātayām āsa |
Sanjaya said: Then Sahadeva struck down Shalya’s son with his sword. Shalya, the king of Madra, killed the horses that had come before him, belonging to Sahadeva. Thereupon Sahadeva, in return, felled Shalya’s son with his blade. The passage underscores the grim reciprocity of battlefield violence, where tactical blows against a warrior’s mobility (his horses) provoke immediate and lethal retaliation, tightening the cycle of vengeance within the larger collapse of dharma in war.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the harsh moral economy of war: tactical harm (killing horses to disable a warrior) escalates into personal loss (the death of a son). It reflects how, in the Kurukṣetra conflict, even actions aligned with battlefield strategy intensify cycles of retaliation, illustrating the erosion of restraint and the tragic cost borne by families and lineages.
Sanjaya reports that Shalya kills Sahadeva’s horses in front of him. In response, Sahadeva strikes down Shalya’s son with a sword, bringing immediate lethal retribution amid the ongoing combat in the Shalya Parva.