Shloka 216
शकुनिवधः — Sahadeva’s Slaying of Śakuni
with Ulūka’s fall
अपनेष्यामि गान्धारं घातयित्वा शितै: शरै: । “आज मैं अत्यन्त कुपित हो गान्धारराज शकुनिको पैने बाणोंसे मरवाकर राजा युधिष्ठिरके दीर्घकालीन जागरणरूपी रोगको दूर कर दूँगा
apaneṣyāmi gāndhāraṃ ghātayitvā śitaiḥ śaraiḥ |
Sañjaya said: “I shall remove the Gandhāra king—having him slain by sharp arrows. Today, in fierce anger, I will have Śakuni, the ruler of Gandhāra, killed with keen shafts and thus dispel King Yudhiṣṭhira’s long-standing affliction of sleepless wakefulness.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames the slaying of a perceived instigator (Śakuni) as a remedy for a king’s moral-psychological suffering (Yudhiṣṭhira’s grief and sleeplessness), highlighting how war rhetoric often moralizes violence as ‘healing’—a tension between righteous duty and anger-driven vengeance.
In the Shalya Parva war setting, Sañjaya reports a resolve to eliminate the Gandhāra ruler Śakuni with sharp arrows, presenting it as a way to end Yudhiṣṭhira’s prolonged distress and wakefulness caused by the burdens of the conflict.