Shloka 29

Bhagadattā’s Deployment Against Ghaṭotkaca; Elephant-Corps Escalation

Devanagari script

बह्बाशिनं ततो भीम: शरेणानतपर्वणा । प्रेषयामास संक़रुद्धो यमस्य सदन प्रति,इसके बाद क्रोधमें भरे हुए भीमसेनने झुकी हुई गाँठवाले बाणसे मारकर बह्लाशीको यमलोक भेज दिया

Transliteration

bahvāśinaṃ tato bhīmaḥ śareṇānataparvaṇā | preṣayāmāsa saṃkruddho yamasya sadanaṃ prati ||

Translation

サンジャヤは言った。ついでビーマは怒りに燃え、節の曲がった矢でバフヴァーシンを射抜き、ヤマの住まいへと送り出した。戦場の苛烈な義務の倫理において、それは私怨の残虐ではなく、戦を支配する避けがたい死の法のもとで、武人の役目を迅速に果たしたものとして語られる。

Word by Word

बह्वाशिनम्Bahvāśin (a person named Bahvāśin), the one who eats much

ततःthen, thereafter

भीमःBhīma

शरेणwith an arrow

आनतपर्वणाhaving bent joints/knots (i.e., with a curved-jointed arrow)

प्रेषयामासsent, dispatched

सङ्क्रुद्धःenraged, wrathful

यमस्यof Yama

सदनम्abode, house

प्रतिtowards

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

Sañjaya

Bhīma (Bhīmasena)

Bahvāśin

Yama

arrow (śara)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores the Mahābhārata’s war-ethic: in the kṣatriya arena, death is administered swiftly as part of duty, while Yama’s abode symbolizes the impartial inevitability of mortality that awaits all combatants.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya reports that Bhīma, in anger, shoots Bahvāśin with a distinctive arrow (described as having bent joints) and kills him—poetically expressed as sending him to Yama’s dwelling.