Shloka 50
Śalya–Bhīma Gadā-saṃnipāta and Śalya’s Bāṇa-jāla against Yudhiṣṭhira
Book 9, Chapter 11
यमदण्डप्रतीकाशां कालरात्रिमिवोद्यताम् | गजवाजिमनुष्याणां देहान्तकरणीमपि
yamadaṇḍapratīkāśāṃ kālarātrim ivodyatām | gajavājimanuṣyāṇāṃ dehāntakaraṇīm api
Sañjaya said: “(He beheld that weapon/force) blazing like Yama’s staff, raised aloft like the Night of Time (Kālarātri), and capable of bringing about the end of the bodies of elephants, horses, and men as well.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the Mahābhārata’s ethical realism: war unleashes a death-force likened to Yama’s rod and Kālarātri, reminding the listener that violence, once invoked, becomes indiscriminate and fated—consuming even the mightiest bodies (elephants, horses, humans).
Sañjaya, narrating the battlefield to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, depicts a terrifying, death-dealing power/weapon raised for attack, using cosmic metaphors (Yama’s staff, Kālarātri) to convey its inevitability and mass lethality across all combatants and mounts.