Shloka 11
Book 3, Āraṇyaka-parva — Adhyāya 19: Pradyumna’s Reproach of Withdrawal and the Ethics of Kṣātra Reputation
सो<5पसव्यां चमूं तस्य शाल्वस्य भरतर्षभ । चकार नातियत्नेन तदद्भुतमिवाभवत्,भरतकुलभूषण! दारुकके पुत्रने अनायास ही शाल्वकी उस सेनाको अपस्व्य (दाहिने) कर दिया। यह एक अदभुत बात हुई
so 'pasavyāṃ camūṃ tasya śālvasya bharatarṣabha | cakāra nātiyatnena tad adbhutam ivābhavat ||
Vāyu sprach: „O Stier unter den Bharatas, ohne große Anstrengung ließ er Śālvas Schlachtordnung nach rechts (apasavya) ausschwenken. Es erschien wie ein Wunder.“
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores that disciplined skill and strategic clarity can achieve decisive results with minimal exertion; it also gestures to the cultural symbolism of direction (apasavya) as a marker of reversal or inauspicious turning, intensifying the sense of a fateful shift in battle.
Vāyu describes a warrior’s feat: Śālva’s army formation is made to turn ‘apasavya’—to the right/reversed direction—quickly and with ease, and the onlookers regard the maneuver as astonishing.