Shloka 25

Devanagari script

जातरूपपरिच्छन्नां प्रगृह् महतीं गदाम्‌ | अवधीत्तावकान्‌ सर्वान्‌ दण्डपाणिरिवान्तक:,वे दण्डपाणि यमराजके समान सुवर्णजटित विशाल गदा हाथमें लेकर आपके समस्त सैनिकोंका वध करने लगे

Transliteration

jātarūpaparicchannāṃ pragṛhya mahatīṃ gadām | avadhīt tāvakān sarvān daṇḍapāṇir ivāntakaḥ ||

Translation

三阇耶说道：他执起一柄镶饰黄金的巨槌，便开始击杀你方全部军士，宛如持罚杖的阎摩——惩罚者、死亡之主——降下灭绝。

Word by Word

जातरूपपरिच्छन्नाम्covered/ornamented with gold

प्रगृह्यhaving seized/taken up

महतīmgreat, huge

गदाम्mace

अवधीत्slew, killed

तावकान्your (people/soldiers)

सर्वान्all

दण्डपाणिःthe staff-in-hand one (Yama)

इवlike, as

अन्तकःDeath (Yama), the ender

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

Sañjaya

Dhṛtarāṣṭra (implied by 'tāvakān')

gadā (mace)

Yama/Antaka (Death, as simile)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights the inexorable presence of death in battle: when war reaches its peak, warriors become instruments of kāla (time/death). The simile of Yama with the punishing rod frames slaughter not as glory but as grim consequence, reminding the listener of the ethical gravity of violence and the collapse of restraint when dharma is eclipsed by vengeance and rivalry.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that a warrior (contextually, a mace-wielding hero in the Karṇa Parva battle sequence) seizes a huge gold-adorned mace and begins killing the Kaurava troops (“your men”) with overwhelming force, compared to Yama/Antaka dispensing death.