Shloka 8
Bhīmasena’s Kalinga Engagement and the Approach of Bhīṣma (भीमसेन-कालिङ्ग-संग्रामः)
अभिसृत्य महाराज वेगवद्धिर्महागजै: । दन्तैरभिहतास्तत्र चुक्रुशु: परमातुरा:,महाराज! कितने ही हाथी तोरण और पताकाओंसहित वेगशाली महाकाय एवं श्रेष्ठ गजराजोंसे भिड़कर उनके दाँतोंके आघातसे अत्यन्त पीड़ित हो आतुर भावसे चिग्घाड़ रहे थे
abhisṛtya mahārāja vegavaddhir mahāgajaiḥ | dantair abhihatās tatra cukruśuḥ paramāturāḥ ||
Sañjaya said: O King, charging forward, many elephants there collided with swift, massive war-elephants; struck by their tusks, they cried out in extreme agony—an image of the battlefield’s relentless violence and the suffering that follows from martial fury.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the immediate human-and-animal cost of war: even mighty creatures become helpless in pain. It implicitly cautions that martial power and speed, when driven into collision, culminate in suffering—an ethical reminder embedded within the epic’s war narrative.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that elephants on the battlefield rush into combat, clash with great swift elephants, and, wounded by tusk-blows, cry out in intense agony.