Shloka 526
Daiva–Puruṣakāra Discourse and the Elephant-Corps Engagement (भीमगजानीक-सम्भ्रान्ति)
निपेतुरु्व्या च तथा विनदन्तो महारवान् | भरतनन्दन! कुछ गजराजोंके दाँत और सूँड़के अग्रभाग कट गये
sañjaya uvāca | nipetur urvyā ca tathā vinadanto mahāravān |
Sañjaya said: “And they fell upon the earth, bellowing with mighty cries. O descendant of Bharata, some of the lordly elephants had their tusks and the tips of their trunks cut off; their temples were split open and their riders slain. In that condition, fleeing here and there, they trampled their own formations, and at last—screaming loudly—they collapsed to the ground and died.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage underscores the brutal, uncontrollable fallout of war: once violence is unleashed, even powerful instruments like war-elephants become sources of indiscriminate destruction, harming friend and foe alike. It implicitly warns of the ethical cost and cascading suffering that accompany battle.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that wounded elephants—maimed in tusk and trunk, their temple-regions split and riders killed—panic and run in confusion, crushing their own troops. Finally, crying out loudly, they collapse to the earth and die.