Shloka 2536
उल्कापातावृतं युद्ध प्रजानां संक्षये नूप । नरेश्वरर उस समय बाणसमूहोंसे व्याप्त हुआ आकाश बड़ा भयंकर प्रतीत होने लगा; ठीक उस तरह जैसे प्रजाके संहारकालमें होनेवाला युद्ध उल्कापातसे व्याप्त होनेके कारण अत्यन्त भयानक दिखायी देता है
sañjaya uvāca | ulkāpātāvṛtaṃ yuddhaṃ prajānāṃ saṃkṣaye nṛpa | bāṇasaṃghair vyāptaṃ vyoma tadā ghoraṃ babhūva | yathā prajāsaṃhārakāle yuddham ulkāpātāvṛtaṃ bhayānakaṃ dṛśyate ||
Sañjaya sprach: O König, damals erschien der Himmel, dicht erfüllt von Schwärmen von Pfeilen, überaus schrecklich — wie eine Schlacht zur Stunde der Vernichtung eines Volkes, wenn sie vom Fall der Meteore verhüllt ist und darum furchtbar wirkt.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames extreme violence as a moral and cosmic warning: when war becomes indiscriminate and annihilative, nature itself seems to mirror the disorder through ominous signs (meteors), reminding rulers that adharma-driven conflict leads to collective ruin.
Sanjaya reports to Dhritarashtra that the battlefield has become terrifying: the sky is thick with volleys of arrows, and the scene is compared to an apocalyptic battle veiled by meteor-falls—an image emphasizing the scale and dread of the ongoing combat in the Karna Parva.