Shloka 19
Gadā-yuddhe Bhīma–Duryodhanayoḥ Tumulaḥ Saṃprahāraḥ
Mace-duel’s intense exchange
हत्वेमं पापकर्माणं गदया रणमूर्थनि । अद्यास्य शतधा देहं भिनझि गदयानया,'युद्धके मुहानेपर गदाके आघातसे इस पापीका वध करके आज इसी गदासे इसके शरीरके सौ-सौ टुकड़े कर डालूँगा
hatvemam pāpakarmāṇaṃ gadayā raṇamūrdhani | adyāsya śatadhā dehaṃ bhinajmi gadayānayā ||
Sañjaya said: “Having slain this evil-doer with the mace at the very forefront of the battle, today I will smash his body into a hundred pieces with this very mace.” The utterance conveys the moral heat of the battlefield: the enemy is framed as a ‘sinner’ to justify extreme violence, revealing how ethical judgment and wrath intertwine in war-speech.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse illustrates how, in war, moral labeling (“evil-doer”) is used to legitimize extreme retaliation. It invites reflection on the tension between righteous duty in battle and the corrosive force of anger that pushes speech toward cruelty.
Sañjaya reports a combatant’s fierce vow: after killing an opponent with a mace at the battle’s forefront, he intends to pulverize the fallen enemy’s body into many pieces with the same weapon—an expression of battlefield fury and vengeance.