Shloka 19
भीष्मरथाभिमुख्यं — Arjuna’s advance with Śikhaṇḍin; Duḥśāsana’s interception
प्रजानाथ! उस युद्धस्थलमें जहाँ-तहाँ सब योद्धा झुकी हुई गाँठवाले नाना प्रकारके भयंकर बाणोंद्वारा अपने विपक्षियोंको परलोकके अतिथि बनाने लगे ।।
prajānātha! tasmin yuddhasthale yatra-tatra sarve yoddhāḥ namra-parvaṇāṁ nānā-vidhānāṁ bhīṣaṇānāṁ bāṇānāṁ prahāraiḥ sva-pakṣīyān vipakṣān paralokasyātithīn akaruvan. rathās tu rathibhir hīnā hatasārathayas tathā, vipradrutāś śvāḥ samare diśo jagmuḥ samantataḥ.
サンジャヤは言った。人の主よ、その戦場では、勇士たちが至るところで、節の曲がった種々の恐るべき矢をもって敵を射倒し、来世の客とした。さらに多くの戦車が—戦車武者を失い、御者も討たれて—怯えた暴走馬に引きずられ、戦場の四方へと旋回しながら走り回っていた。
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the stark impermanence of life in war: prowess and status collapse instantly, and death becomes the inevitable ‘host’ receiving those struck down. It implicitly cautions that martial duty (kṣatriya-dharma) operates within a grim moral horizon where consequences are irreversible.
Sañjaya reports to the king that the battle has become chaotic and lethal: warriors are killing opponents with fearsome arrows, while riderless chariots—charioteers slain and fighters gone—are dragged by panicked horses, circling and scattering in every direction.