Shloka 49
पृथिवीमुपगुदाज्लैः सुप्ता: कान्तामिव प्रियाम् इस पृथ्वीके राज्यके लिये मारे गये ये पृथ्वीपति अपने सम्पूर्ण अंगोंद्वारा प्यारी प्राणवललभाके समान इस भूमिका आलिंगन करके इसपर सो रहे हैं ।। ४८ $ ।। इमांश्व॒ गिरिकूटाभान् नागानैरावतोपमान्,तांक्ष बाणहतान् वीर पश्य निष्टनत: क्षितौ । वीर! देखो, से पर्वतशिखरके समान प्रतीत होनेवाले ऐरावत-जैसे हाथी शस्त्रोंद्वारा बने हुए घावोंके छिद्रसे उसी प्रकार अधिकाधिक रक्तकी धारा बहा रहे हैं, जैसे पर्वत अपनी कन्दराओंके मुखसे गेरुमिश्रित जलके झरने बहाया करते हैं। वे बाणोंसे मारे जाकर धरतीपर लोट रहे हैं
pṛthivīm upagūḍhāṅgaiḥ suptāḥ kāntām iva priyām | imāṃś ca girikūṭābhān nāgān airāvatopamān tāṃś ca bāṇahatān vīra paśya niṣṭanataḥ kṣitau ||
Śrī Kṛṣṇa said: “For the sake of sovereignty over the earth, these lords of the earth have been slain; with all their limbs they clasp this ground as one would embrace a beloved wife, and thus they lie asleep upon her. And look, O hero—these elephants, seeming like mountain-peaks and comparable to Airāvata, struck down by arrows, writhe and groan upon the soil, their wounds pouring forth streams of blood, as mountains send down reddish torrents from the mouths of their caves.”
श्रीकृष्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the ethical gravity and tragic cost of war for power: kings who sought dominion over the earth end by embracing the very earth in death, while even mighty war-elephants collapse and bleed. It highlights impermanence and the sobering consequences of ambition and violence within the frame of kṣatriya warfare.
Śrī Kṛṣṇa directs a warrior’s attention to the battlefield: slain rulers lie on the ground as if asleep, clinging to the earth like a beloved; nearby, huge elephants—likened to mountain peaks and to Airāvata—have been pierced by arrows, groaning and spilling blood as they fall and writhe on the soil.