Shloka 18
सवालव्यजर्नर्दिव्यर्दिविस्थैरप्सरोगणै: । शक्रसूर्यकराब्जा भ्यां प्रमार्जितमुखावुभौ
sa vālavya-janair divyair divi-sthair apsaro-gaṇaiḥ | śakra-sūrya-karābjābhyāṃ pramārjita-mukhāv ubhau ||
Sañjaya sprach: Da wurden beide—geehrt von himmlischen Gefolgsleuten und von Scharen der im Himmel weilenden Apsaras—sanft im Antlitz abgewischt und erquicklich erfrischt, als hätten Indra und die Sonne sie mit lotusgleichen Händen berührt.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse conveys that the deaths and sufferings of great warriors are not treated as mere brutality; the epic frames them within a moral-cosmic horizon where valor and the gravity of action are acknowledged by divine witnesses, reminding the listener that karma and honor operate even amid chaos.
Sañjaya describes a scene in which two figures (ubhau) are attended by celestial beings—Apsarases and heavenly attendants—who symbolically cleanse and refresh their faces, poetically likened to being wiped by the lotus-like hands of Indra and the Sun.