Shloka 38
हयानां वध्यमानानां गजानां रथिनां तथा
hayānāṁ vadhyamānānāṁ gajānāṁ rathināṁ tathā
Sañjaya said: “As the horses were being cut down, and likewise the elephants and the chariot-warriors as well…,”—he begins to depict the battlefield’s mounting devastation, where the instruments of war and the warriors themselves fall together, underscoring the moral weight and tragic cost of unchecked slaughter.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The line highlights the comprehensive destructiveness of war: not only warriors but also animals and the very means of combat are destroyed. Ethically, it invites reflection on the collateral suffering and the heavy karmic and social cost that accompanies martial duty when violence escalates beyond restraint.
Sañjaya is describing the battlefield scene in Drona Parva, portraying ongoing slaughter—horses, elephants, and chariot-warriors being killed—setting the tone for a larger account of intense fighting and its grim consequences.