Shloka 25
आपूर्यते कौरवी चाप्यभीक्षणं सेना हासौ सुभृशं हन्यमाना । धनंजयस्याशनितुल्यवेगै- ग्रेस््ता शरै: काउचनबर्हिबाजै:
āpūryate kauravī cāpy abhīkṣṇaṁ senā hāsau subhṛśaṁ hanyamānā | dhanaṁjayasya aśanitulya-vegair agreṣṭhaiḥ śaraiḥ kāñcana-barhibājaiḥ ||
Bhīmasena disse: “Vez após vez o exército dos Kaurava é subjugado e esmagado; abatido com severidade implacável, ergue altos gritos de angústia. Pois as flechas mais excelsas de Dhanañjaya—rápidas como um raio, adornadas com ouro e com emplumação de penas de pavão—estão a esmagá-lo.”
भीमसेन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the overwhelming force of disciplined martial skill and its immediate moral consequence: mass suffering. It implicitly reminds the listener that prowess in war, even when aligned with one’s side, produces real anguish—an ethical tension central to the Mahābhārata’s portrayal of kṣatriya-dharma.
Bhīma describes the battlefield situation: Arjuna (Dhanañjaya) is releasing superb, thunderbolt-swift arrows—gold-adorned and peacock-fletched—by which the Kaurava army is repeatedly battered and cries out in distress.