Shloka 35

अभिमन्यु–अलम्बुसयुद्धम् / The Duel of Abhimanyu and Alambusa

with Arjuna’s approach to Bhīṣma

Devanagari script

जघान चतुरो वाहान्‌ साररथिं ध्वजमेव च | सप्तमेन च भल्लेन नीलं विव्याध वक्षसि

Transliteration

sañjaya uvāca |

jaghāna caturo vāhān sārathiṃ dhvajam eva ca |

saptamena ca bhallena nīlaṃ vivyādha vakṣasi ||

Translation

သဉ္ဇယက ပြော၏— ချွန်ထက်သော မြားများဖြင့် သူသည် နီလ၏ မြင်းလေးကောင်ကို ချေမှုန်းပြီးနောက် ရထားမောင်းကို သတ်ကာ အလံကိုပါ ဖြတ်ချလိုက်၏။ သတ္တမ ဘ္ဟလ္လ မြားဖြင့် နီလ၏ ရင်ဘတ်ကို ထိုးဖောက်ခဲ့၏။

Word by Word

• जघान: slew/struck down
• Type: Verb
• Root: हन् (धातु)
• Form: लिट् (परस्मैपद, परोक्षभूत/परफेक्ट), 3, singular

• चतुरः: four
• चतुरः: Karma
• Type: Adjective
• Root: चतुर्
• Form: masculine, accusative, plural

• वाहान्: horses (draught-animals)
• वाहान्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: वाह (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: masculine, accusative, plural

• साररथिम्: the charioteer
• साररथिम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: साररथि (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: masculine, accusative, singular

• ध्वजम्: banner/standard
• ध्वजम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: ध्वज (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: masculine, accusative, singular

• एव: indeed/just
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: एव

• च: and
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: च

• सप्तमेन: with the seventh
• सप्तमेन: Karana
• Type: Adjective
• Root: सप्तम (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: masculine/neuter, instrumental, singular

• च: and
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: च

• भल्लेन: with an arrow (bhalla)
• भल्लेन: Karana
• Type: Noun
• Root: भल्ल (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: masculine, instrumental, singular

• नीलम्: Nīla (a warrior)
• नीलम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: नील (प्रातिपदिक; proper name)
• Form: masculine, accusative, singular

• विव्याध: pierced
• Type: Verb
• Root: व्यध्/विध् (धातु; ‘to pierce’)
• Form: लिट् (परस्मैपद, परोक्षभूत/परफेक्ट), 3, singular

• वक्षसि: in/on the chest
• वक्षसि: Adhikarana
• Type: Noun
• Root: वक्षस् (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: neuter, locative, singular

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sañjaya
• Nīla
• chariot horses (vāhāḥ)
• charioteer (sārathi)
• banner/standard (dhvaja)
• bhalla arrows

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights how warfare targets not only the warrior but also the supports of agency—mobility (horses), direction (charioteer), and identity/morale (banner). It invites reflection on kṣatriya-dharma: skill and duty in battle can be executed with clinical efficiency, yet remain ethically weighty because they systematically remove an opponent’s capacity to act.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya describes a combatant using seven bhalla arrows in sequence: four kill Nīla’s four horses, the fifth kills the charioteer, the sixth cuts down the banner, and the seventh pierces Nīla in the chest.