Shloka 17

Devanagari script

गजैश्न बहुधा छिन्नै: शयानै: पर्वतोपमै:

Transliteration

gajaiś ca bahudhā chinnaiḥ śayānaiḥ parvatopamaiḥ

Translation

Sañjaya said: And the elephants—many of them cut down in various ways—lay strewn upon the ground, resembling mountains. The scene shows how war reduces even the mightiest to lifeless heaps, revealing the terrible cost of violence and the fragility of worldly power.

Word by Word

गजैःby/with elephants

चand

बहुधाin many ways; repeatedly

छिन्नैःby/with (those) cut down; severed

शयानैःby/with (those) lying (on the ground)

पर्वतोपमैःby/with (those) comparable to mountains

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

Sañjaya

elephants

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Cross References

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights the moral gravity of war: even the strongest creatures fall, reminding the listener of impermanence and the immense suffering produced by violence, which should temper pride and triumphalism.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra the battlefield’s devastation, describing severed and fallen elephants lying about like mountains, emphasizing the scale and brutality of the fighting.