Shloka 13
Gadā-yuddhe Bhīma–Duryodhanayoḥ Tumulaḥ Saṃprahāraḥ
Mace-duel’s intense exchange
रक्षाश्न वाता: प्रववुर्नीचै: शर्करकर्षिण: । गिरीणां शिखराण्येव न्यपतन्त महीतले
sañjaya uvāca |
rakṣāśanā vātāḥ pravavur nīcaiḥ śarkarākarṣiṇaḥ |
girīṇāṃ śikharāṇy eva nyapatanta mahītale |
nirghātāśanā mahāghorā babhūvur lomaharṣaṇāḥ |
dīptāyāṃ diśi rājendra mṛgāś cāśubha-vedinaḥ ||
Sañjaya sprach: „Winde, beladen mit Staub und Kies, wehten tief und schleppten Steinchen über den Boden. Die Gipfel der Berge schienen gleichsam auf die Erde zu stürzen. Furchtbare Donner krachten—grauenvolle, haarsträubende Vorzeichen. In einer Richtung, die aussah, als stünde sie in Flammen, o König, gaben die Tiere Zeichen, die Unheil verhießen.“
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores a Mahābhārata motif: when collective conduct sinks into adharma, nature itself appears disordered, presenting ominous signs. Ethically, it frames the coming violence as not merely a human conflict but a moral crisis whose consequences reverberate through the world.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra a sequence of terrifying portents—low, dust-choked winds dragging gravel, seeming collapse of mountain peaks, dreadful thunder and lightning, a quarter of the sky appearing to blaze, and animals behaving as if foretelling calamity—heightening the sense of impending disaster in the war.