Shloka 28
Nakula’s Engagement with Citra-sena and Karṇa’s Sons; Śalya Re-stabilizes the Kaurava Host
मेघोंकी घटाके समान प्रतीत होनेवाले हाथी चारों ओरसे पृथ्वीपर पड़े थे, जो प्रलयकालमें वज्ञ़के आघातसे विदीर्ण होकर गिरे हुए पर्वतोंके समान प्रतीत होते थे ।। हयानां सादिदश्नि: सार्थ पतितानां महीतले । राशय: सम प्रदृश्यन्ते गिरिमात्रास्ततस्ततः,सवारोंसहित धरतीपर गिरे हुए घोड़ोंके पहाड़ों-जैसे ढेर यत्र-तत्र दृष्टिगोचर होते थे
sañjaya uvāca | meghānāṃ ghaṭākā-samāna-pratīta-hastinaḥ sarvataḥ pṛthivyāṃ patitā āsan, ye pralayakāle vajrāghātena vidīrṇāḥ patitā iva parvatāḥ pratibhānti || hayānāṃ sādi-daśnīḥ sārthaṃ patitānāṃ mahītale | rāśayaḥ sama-pradṛśyante giri-mātrās tataḥ tataḥ ||
Sañjaya sprach: Überall lagen Elefanten auf der Erde verstreut; ihre gefallenen Leiber wirkten wie dichte Wolkenmassen—wie Berge, die vom Vajra gespalten und zur Zeit der Weltenauflösung herabgeschleudert werden. Ebenso sah man hier und dort Haufen von Pferden, die mitsamt ihren Reitern gestürzt waren, aufgetürmt wie Hügel.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the impermanence of embodied life and the immense suffering produced by war: even the mightiest forces—elephants, horses, and warriors—collapse into lifeless heaps. The pralaya and thunderbolt imagery heightens the ethical weight of violence by portraying battle as a world-shattering calamity.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra the दृश्य of the battlefield: elephants lie fallen everywhere, compared to cloud-masses and to mountains split by Indra’s thunderbolt at the end of an age; similarly, horses with their riders have fallen in great piles, seen scattered across the field.