Shloka 39
गिरिमात्रा हि ते नागा भिन्नाउ्जनचयोपमा: । विरेजुर्वसुधां प्राप्ता विकीर्णा इव पर्वता:,कटे हुए कोयलेकी राशिके समान काले और गिरिराजके समान ऊँचे शरीरवाले वे हाथी पृथ्वीपर गिरकर इधर-उधर बिखरे हुए पर्वतोंके समान शोभा पाते थे
girimātrā hi te nāgā bhinnāñjanacayopamāḥ | virejur vasudhāṃ prāptā vikīrṇā iva parvatāḥ ||
Sañjaya said: Those elephants—huge as mountains and dark like heaps of crushed collyrium—fell upon the earth and lay scattered, yet they appeared splendid, like mountains strewn apart.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the impermanence of worldly power: even mountain-like war-elephants, symbols of might, end up fallen and scattered. It implicitly cautions against pride in strength and points to the grave human and moral cost of warfare.
Sañjaya narrates the battlefield scene: massive, dark war-elephants have been struck down and have fallen to the ground. Their bodies lie scattered across the earth, and in that spread-out stillness they resemble dispersed mountains.