Shloka 436

भीष्मस्य अप्रतिमपराक्रमः — शिखण्डिपुरस्कृतः प्रहारः

Bhīṣma’s unmatched momentum and the assault with Śikhaṇḍin in the lead

Devanagari script

प्रेषयामास समरे स्वर्णपुड्खाजञ्छिलाशितान्‌ | बाणोंको काटनेके पश्चात्‌ आपके पुत्रने कुन्तीकुमार अर्जुनको तीखे बाणोंद्वारा बींध डाला

Transliteration

sañjaya uvāca | preṣayāmāsa samare svarṇapuṅkhān śilāśitān | bāṇān kāṭayitvā tava putreṇa kuntīkumarārjunaḥ tīkṣṇair bāṇair viddhaḥ | tataḥ raṇakṣetre arjunaḥ kupitaḥ san svadhanūṣi svarṇamaya-pakṣa-yuktān śilā-ghṛṣṭān tīkṣṇīkṛtān bāṇān sandadhānaḥ duḥśāsanāya preṣayāmāsa ||

Translation

Санджая сказал: В сражении он выпускал стрелы с золотыми оперениями, отточенные о камень. Срубив эти стрелы, твой сын затем пронзил Арджуну, сына Кунти, острыми стрелами. Тогда на поле брани Арджуна, разгневавшись, наложил на тетиву стрелы с золотыми крыльями, наточенные трением о камень, и пустил их в Духшасану.

Word by Word

• प्रेषयामास: sent/shot forth
• प्रेषयामास: Karta
• Type: Verb
• Root: प्रेष् (प्रेषयति)
• Form: लिट् (परस्मैपदम्), perfect (periphrastic), 3, singular

• समरे: in battle
• समरे: Adhikarana
• Type: Noun
• Root: समर
• Form: masculine, locative, singular

• स्वर्णपुड्खान्: having golden arrow-tails/feathering
• स्वर्णपुड्खान्: Karma
• Type: Adjective
• Root: स्वर्णपुड्ख
• Form: masculine, accusative, plural

• छिलाशितान्: sharpened (on a whetstone)
• छिलाशितान्: Karma
• Type: Adjective
• Root: छिलाशित
• Form: masculine, accusative, plural, past passive participle (क्त), शा/शि (शाति/शिनाति) in sense 'to sharpen' (as in शित)

• बाणान्: arrows
• बाणान्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: बाण
• Form: masculine, accusative, plural

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sanjaya
• Dhritarashtra (implied by 'your son')
• Arjuna
• Duhshasana
• Kaurava prince (tava putra)
• battlefield (raṇakṣetra)
• bow (dhanus)
• arrows (bāṇa), golden-feathered arrows (svarṇapuṅkha)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores how quickly warfare turns into a chain of retaliation: injury provokes anger, and anger drives renewed violence. It implicitly cautions that even righteous warriors can be pulled into escalating conflict, making self-mastery and restraint ethically significant amid kshatriya duty.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sanjaya reports that in the battle golden-feathered, stone-sharpened arrows are shot. After those arrows are cut down, Arjuna is pierced by your son’s sharp shafts. Arjuna, enraged, then fits similarly sharpened golden-feathered arrows to his bow and shoots them at Duhshasana.