Mahabharata — Shalya Parva, Shloka 42

Adhyāya 14: Śalya’s Missile-Pressure and the Pāṇḍava Convergence (शल्यस्य शरवर्षम्)

Devanagari script

स तस्य ह्ृदयं भित्त्वा प्रविवेशातिवेगित: । शक्राशनिरिवोत्सृष्टो विदार्य धरणीतलम्‌

Transliteration

sa tasya hṛdayaṃ bhittvā praviveśātivegitaḥ | śakrāśanir ivotsṛṣṭo vidārya dharaṇītalam |

Translation

သဉ္ဇယက ပြောသည်– ထိုမြားသည် သူ၏နှလုံးကို ခွဲဖောက်ကာ အလွန်မြန်သော အရှိန်ဖြင့် ကိုယ်ထဲသို့ ထိုးဝင်သွား하였다။ အင်္ဒြာ၏ ဝဇ္ဇရ (မိုးကြိုး) ကို ပစ်လွှတ်သကဲ့သို့ မြေပြင်ကို ခွဲဖောက်၍ အတွင်းသို့ ဝင်သွားသကဲ့သို့ပင်။ ဤဥပမာသည် စစ်ပွဲ၏ ကြမ်းတမ်းသော လှုပ်ရှားမှုအတွင်း မြား၏ မတားဆီးနိုင်သော၊ ကံကြမ္မာဆန်သော အင်အားကို ထင်ဟပ်စေသည်။

Word by Word

• सः: he
• सः: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: तद्
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• तस्य: of him
• Type: Noun
• Root: तद्
• Form: Masculine/Neuter, Genitive, Singular

• हृदयम्: heart
• हृदयम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: हृदय
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

• भित्त्वा: having pierced/split
• Type: Verb
• Root: भिद्
• Form: क्त्वा (absolutive/gerund), Parasmaipada (usage)

• प्रविवेश: entered
• Type: Verb
• Root: प्र + विश्
• Form: लिट् (Perfect), Third, Singular, Parasmaipada

• अतिवेगितः: very swift/impetuous
• Type: Adjective
• Root: अति-वेगित
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• शक्राशनिः: Indra's thunderbolt (vajra)
• शक्राशनिः: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: शक्र-अशनि
• Form: Feminine, Nominative, Singular

• इव: like/as
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: इव

• उत्सृष्टः: released/let loose
• Type: Verb
• Root: उत् + सृज्
• Form: क्त (past passive participle), Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• विदार्य: having torn asunder
• Type: Verb
• Root: वि + दृ
• Form: ल्यप् (absolutive/gerund), Parasmaipada (usage)

• धरणीतलम्: the surface of the earth/ground
• धरणीतलम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: धरणी-तल
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sañjaya
• Śakra (Indra)
• aśani/vajra (thunderbolt)
• dharaṇītala (earth/ground)
• arrow (nārāca)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights the inexorable force of actions set in motion in war: once a deadly act is released, its consequences strike with near-unstoppable momentum. Ethically, it serves as a stark reminder of the gravity of violence and the irreversible outcomes of martial choices.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya describes a swift, powerful arrow (nārāca) that pierces a warrior’s heart and enters his body, comparing its force to Indra’s thunderbolt that rends the earth and sinks into it—emphasizing the lethal intensity of the battlefield.