Shloka 143
रणभूमिवर्णनम् — Devāsuropama-yuddha and the ‘River’ Metaphor of the Battlefield
भीमेन च महाबाहूु: पुत्रो दुर्योधनो मम । संजय! रणभूमिमें राजा शल्य धर्मराजके द्वारा कैसे मारे गये तथा भीमसेनने मेरे महाबाहु पुत्र दुर्योधनका वध कैसे किया?
bhīmena ca mahābāhuḥ putro duryodhano mama | sañjaya! raṇabhūmau rājā śalyaḥ dharmarājena kathaṁ hataḥ, tathā bhīmasenena mama mahābāhu-putrasya duryodhanasya vadhaḥ kathaṁ kṛtaḥ?
Sanjaya said: “Sanjaya, how was King Shalya slain on the battlefield by Dharmaraja (Yudhishthira)? And how did Bhimasena bring about the death of my mighty-armed son Duryodhana?”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames the climactic outcomes of the war as moral and karmic consequences: even the greatest warriors fall when adharma ripens into defeat, and the narrator’s question highlights the ethical weight of how victory and death occur in a dharma-yuddha.
Sanjaya introduces (or relays) the king’s urgent inquiry about two decisive events: the manner of Shalya’s death at Yudhishthira’s hands and the manner of Duryodhana’s death at Bhima’s hands—key turning points near the war’s end.