Shloka 27

Nakula’s Engagement with Citra-sena and Karṇa’s Sons; Śalya Re-stabilizes the Kaurava Host

Devanagari script

ते गजा घनसंकाशा: पेतुरुव्या समन्ततः । वज़नुन्ना इव बभु: पर्वता युगसंक्षये

Transliteration

te gajā ghanasaṅkāśāḥ petur uvyā samantataḥ | vajranunnā iva babhūḥ parvatā yugasaṅkṣaye ||

Translation

Sañjaya sprach: Jene Elefanten, dunkel und gewaltig wie Sturmwolken, stürzten ringsum zu Boden. Als wären sie von Indras Vajra getroffen, glichen sie Bergen, die am Ende eines Zeitalters zusammenbrechen.

Word by Word

तेthose

गजाःelephants

घन-संकाशाःcloud-like, resembling clouds

पेतुःfell

उर्व्याम्on the earth/ground

समन्ततःon all sides, all around

वज्र-नुन्नाःstruck by the thunderbolt

इवas if, like

बभूवुःbecame, appeared

पर्वताःmountains

युग-संक्षयेat the end of an age (yuga)

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

Sañjaya

elephants (gajāḥ)

earth/ground (bhūmi/uvī)

Vajra (Indra’s thunderbolt)

mountains (parvatāḥ)

yuga-saṅkṣaya (end of an age)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores impermanence and the leveling force of violence: even the strongest (war-elephants) fall, and the battlefield turns grandeur into ruin. The cosmic simile (mountains collapsing at yuga’s end) frames war as a near-apocalyptic moral warning against arrogance and the intoxication of power.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that elephants on the battlefield are being struck down and collapsing everywhere. Their fall is compared to mountains shattered by a thunderbolt, evoking the scale and terror of the ongoing combat in the Śalya Parva.