Shloka 26
कर्णार्जुनसमागमः — The Karṇa–Arjuna Confrontation
Cosmic Spectatorship and Vows
विगाह्[ तां पाण्डवबाणवदवृुष्टिं शरै: परं नाम ततः प्रकाश्य । शतेन कृष्णं सहसाभ्यविद्ध्यत् त्रिभि: शतैरजुन क्षुद्रकाणाम्
vigāhya tāṃ pāṇḍava-bāṇa-vadavṛṣṭiṃ śaraiḥ paraṃ nāma tataḥ prakāśya | śatena kṛṣṇaṃ sahasābhyavidhyat tribhiḥ śatair arjunaṃ kṣudrakāṇām ||
पांडवांच्या बाणवृष्टीत घुसून त्याने शरांनी आपले परम नाव प्रकट केले; आणि सहसा शंभर बाणांनी कृष्णाला व तीनशे क्षुद्र, तीक्ष्ण बाणांनी अर्जुनाला भेदले।
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the kṣatriya ideal of fearlessly entering danger and asserting one’s martial identity, while also reminding the reader that even valorous skill unfolds within a larger moral tragedy where dharma is contested and suffering is amplified by pride and rivalry.
In Sañjaya’s report from the battlefield, a warrior charges into the Pāṇḍavas’ dense arrow-barrage, proclaims his famed name/epithet as a battle-cry, and rapidly wounds Kṛṣṇa with a hundred arrows and Arjuna with three hundred smaller shafts.