Shloka 25
सैन्यसंनिवेशः (Sainyasaṃniveśaḥ) — Deployment, Omens, and Yuddha-Dharma Conventions
शून्या5डसीत् पृथिवी सर्वा वृद्धबालावशेषिता । निरश्वपुरुषेवासीदू् रथकुञज्जरवर्जिता
śūnyā āsīt pṛthivī sarvā vṛddha-bālāvaśeṣitā | niraśva-puruṣevāsīd ratha-kuñjaravarjitā ||
Vaiśaṃpāyana said: The whole earth seemed emptied out, with only the aged and the children left behind. It looked like a deserted settlement—bereft of horses and men, and stripped of chariots and elephants—because the fighting hosts had gone to the battlefield.
वैशग्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the social cost of war: when armies mobilize, ordinary life is hollowed out, leaving the vulnerable—children and the elderly—behind. It implicitly warns that warfare empties communities and disrupts the moral and social fabric.
As the Kurukṣetra war is about to unfold, the narrator describes the land as deserted because fighting men, horses, chariots, and elephants have moved out to the battlefield, making settlements appear empty and abandoned.