Shloka 13
Adhyāya 108 — Nimitta-darśana and Drona’s counsel amid Arjuna’s advance (निमित्तदर्शनं द्रोणोपदेशश्च)
खुरशब्दश्न सुमहान् वाजिनां शुश्रुवे तदा । महावंशवनस्येव दहयुमानस्य पर्वते
sañjaya uvāca | khuraśabdaḥ sumahān vājīnām śuśruve tadā | mahāvaṃśavanasyeva dahyamānasya parvate ||
Sañjaya said: Then a very great sound of the horses’ hooves was heard on all sides—like the cracking report that rises when a vast bamboo-grove, burning upon a mountainside, bursts and splits in the fire.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse is primarily descriptive rather than doctrinal: it conveys how war amplifies fear and inevitability through sensory imagery. Ethically, it underscores the grave, consuming nature of battle—like fire in a bamboo forest—reminding the listener that violence, once unleashed, spreads with a force beyond individual control.
Sañjaya narrates the battlefield as the armies move; the thunder of horses’ hooves rises everywhere. He compares that sound to the sharp cracking of bamboo exploding while a huge bamboo-grove burns on a mountainside, intensifying the scene’s urgency and dread.