द्रुमसेनस् तु संक्रुद्धो राजन् विव्याध पत्रिणा ॥
त्रिभिश् चान्यैः शरैस् तूर्णं तिष्ठ तिष्ठेति चाब्रवीत् ॥
स तु तं प्रतिविव्याध त्रिभिस् तीक्ष्णैर् अजिह्मगैः ॥
स्वर्णपुङ्खैः शिलाधौतैः प्राणान्तकरणैर् युधि ॥
भल्लेनान्येन तु पुनः सुवर्णोज्ज्वलकुण्डलम् ॥
उन्ममाथ शिरः कायाद् द्रुमसेनस्य वीर्यवान् ॥
तच्छिरो न्यपतद् भूमौ संदष्टौष्ठपुटं रणे ॥
महावातसमुद्धूतं पक्वं तालफलं यथा ॥
drumasenas tu saṃkruddho rājan vivyādha patriṇā ||
tribhiś cānyaiḥ śarais tūrṇaṃ tiṣṭha tiṣṭheti cābravīt ||
sa tu taṃ prativivyādha tribhis tīkṣṇair ajihmagaiḥ ||
svarṇapuṅkhaiḥ śilādhautaiḥ prāṇāntakaraṇair yudhi ||
bhallenānyena tu punaḥ suvarṇojjvalakuṇḍalam ||
unmamātha śiraḥ kāyād drumasenasya vīryavān ||
tacchiro nyapatad bhūmau saṃdaṣṭauṣṭhapuṭaṃ raṇe ||
mahāvātasamuddhūtaṃ pakvaṃ tālaphalaṃ yathā ||
But Drumasena, enraged, O king, pierced him with a feathered arrow and three other arrows swiftly, crying: "Stand, stand!" But he pierced him in return with three sharp, straight-flying, gold-feathered arrows, whetted on stone, bringing death in the battle. And then, with another broad-headed arrow, the valorous one struck the head, with its earrings gleaming with gold, from Drumasena's body. That head fell to the ground, lips bitten, in the battle, like a ripe palm fruit shaken loose by a great wind.
70ad2e2c0949 · published Jul 19, 2026, 4:49:34 PM UTC
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The severed head, lips still bitten, falls "like a ripe palm fruit in the wind": a warrior's death is likened to a fruit's ripening and fall — a lesson in inevitability. It is telling that the bitten lip holds its fury even past the threshold of death. The verse teaches that life, like a fruit, ripens toward an inevitable fall; however formidable a man may be, his hour tears him away as the wind tears the fruit — and wrath carried beyond that boundary has neither meaning nor outlet left.