Shloka 72

Cakravyūha-saṃkalpaḥ, Saṃśaptaka-āhvānaṃ, Saubhadra-vikrīḍitam

Drona Parva, Adhyāya 32

Devanagari script

एवमेष महारौद्र: क्षयार्थ सर्वधन्विनाम्‌

Transliteration

evameṣa mahāraudraḥ kṣayārthaṃ sarvadhanvinām

Translation

एवमेष महारौद्रः क्षयार्थं सर्वधन्विनाम्।

Word by Word

• एवम्: thus, in this manner
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: एवम्

• एषः: this (one)
• एषः: Karta
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: एतद्
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• महारौद्रः: very terrible, exceedingly fierce
• महारौद्रः: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: महारौद्र
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• क्षयार्थम्: for destruction (as purpose)
• Type: Noun
• Root: क्षयार्थ
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

• सर्वधन्विनाम्: of all archers/bowmen
• Type: Noun
• Root: सर्वधन्विन्
• Form: Masculine, Genitive, Plural

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sañjaya

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights how war, once unleashed, can become indiscriminate and self-consuming—aimed not at restoring dharma but at annihilating the very community of warriors. Ethically, it warns of escalation: violence tends to expand beyond initial aims and turns into collective devastation.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya, narrating the battlefield events, describes a phase of combat so fierce that it appears designed to bring about the destruction of all archers—signaling an intensification of slaughter and the grim momentum of the Kurukṣetra war.