रथम् अन्यं समास्थाय विधिवत् कल्पितं पुनः ॥
अभ्ययात् पाण्डवं युद्धे त्वरमाणः पराक्रमी ॥
ताव् अन्योन्यं शरैर् विद्ध्वा स्वर्णपुङ्खैः शिलाशितैः ॥
व्यभ्राजेतां महाराज पुष्पिताव् इव किंशुकौ ॥
षट्त्रिंशद्भिस् ततो भल्लैर् निशितैस् तिग्मतेजनैः ॥
व्यधमत् कवचं क्रुद्धः सूतपुत्रस्य पाण्डवः ॥
ratham anyaṃ samāsthāya vidhivat kalpitaṃ punaḥ ||
abhyayāt pāṇḍavaṃ yuddhe tvaramāṇaḥ parākramī ||
tāv anyonyaṃ śarair viddhvā svarṇapuṅkhaiḥ śilāśitaiḥ ||
vyabhrājetāṃ mahārāja puṣpitāv iva kiṃśukau ||
ṣaṭtriṃśadbhis tato bhallair niśitais tigmatejanaiḥ ||
vyadhamat kavacaṃ kruddhaḥ sūtaputrasya pāṇḍavaḥ ||
Having mounted another chariot, again duly equipped, the valiant, hastening Karna advanced upon the Pandava in battle. The two, having pierced each other with golden-fletched arrows whetted on stone, shone, o great king, like two blossoming kinshuka trees. Then the enraged Pandava, with thirty-six sharp, keen-pointed bhalla-arrows, struck down the armor of the charioteer's son.
a313cd2cc3aa · published Jul 19, 2026, 4:25:13 PM UTC
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The two, studded with arrows, bloom like scarlet kinshukas: the poet sees a fearsome beauty even in wounded bodies. It is telling that Karna, hardly recovered from his swoon, again mounts a chariot and goes into battle: his grief has not broken his will. The verse teaches to see at once both the grandeur of the combat and its cost; the beauty of the flowering tree to which the blood-soaked fighters are likened does not cancel the fact that this bloom is wounds.