Shloka 26
उवाच यस्यास्ति बल॑ स रक्ष- त्वसौ भवेदद्य निरस्तबाहु: । दुःशासनं जीवित प्रोत्सूजन्त- माक्षिप्य योधांस्तरसा महाबल:,युद्धस्थलमें ऐसी बात कहते हुए राजकुमार दुःशासनकी छातीपर चढ़कर भीमसेनने उसे दोनों हाथोंसे बलपूर्वक पकड़ लिया और उच्च स्वरसे सिंहनाद करते हुए समस्त योद्धाओंसे कहा--“आज दुःशासनकी बाँह उखाड़ी जा रही है। यह अब अपने प्राणोंको त्यागना ही चाहता है। जिसमें बल हो, वह आकर इसे मेरे हाथसे बचा ले।” इस प्रकार समस्त योद्धाओंको ललकारकर महाबली, महामनस्वी, कुपित भीमसेनने एक ही हाथसे वेगपूर्वक दुःशासनकी बाँह उखाड़ ली। उसकी वह बाँह वज़्के समान कठोर थी। भीमसेन समस्त वीरोंके बीच उसीके द्वारा उसे पीटने लगे
sañjaya uvāca | uvāca yasyāsti balaṃ sa rakṣatvasau bhavedadya nirastabāhuḥ | duḥśāsanaṃ jīvita-protsujantaṃ ākṣipya yodhāṃs tarasā mahābalaḥ ||
Sañjaya said: “Let any man of strength come and protect him! Today he shall be left without an arm. Duḥśāsana is casting away his very life.” Saying this, the mighty warrior (Bhīma), with sudden force, challenged the fighters around him. In the ethical heat of the battlefield, the act is framed not as mere cruelty but as the grim fulfillment of a vowed retribution within the logic of kṣatriya war—where personal oaths, wrath, and public challenge collide with the limits of dharma.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the Mahābhārata’s tension between dharma and wrath: in war, a kṣatriya’s public vow and retributive justice can become a driving ‘ethical’ rationale, yet it also exposes how anger and humiliation escalate violence beyond ordinary restraint.
In the midst of battle, Bhīma (as described by Sañjaya) seizes Duḥśāsana and loudly challenges all warriors to try to save him, declaring that Duḥśāsana will be left armless that very day—signaling the imminent, forceful tearing off of his arm.