Shloka 25
इड्गुदैर्बदरीभिश्न कोविदारैश्न पुष्पितै: । पलाशैक्षारिमेदैश्व प्लक्षन्यग्रोधपिप्पलै:,भारत! तत्पश्चात् वे एक-दूसरेपर नाना प्रकारके अस्त्र-शस्त्रोंकी वर्षा करने लगे। लोहेके परिघ, शूल, गदा, मुसल, मुद्गर, पिनाक, खड्ग, तोमर, प्रास, कम्पन, तीखे नाराच, भलल, बाण, चक्र, फरसे, लोहेकी गोली, भिन्दिपाल, गोशीर्ष, उलूखल, बड़ी-बड़ी शाखाओंवाले उखाड़े हुए नाना प्रकारके वृक्ष--शमी, पीलु, कदम्ब, चम्पा, इंगुद, बेर, विकसित कोविदार, पलाश, अरिमेद, बड़े-बड़े पाकड़, बरगद और पीपल--इन सबके द्वारा उस महासमरमें वे एक-दूसरेपर चोट करने लगे। नाना प्रकारकी धातुओंसे व्याप्त विशाल पर्वतशिखरोंद्वारा भी वे परस्पर आघात करते थे
iṅgudair badarībhiś ca kovidāraiś ca puṣpitaiḥ | palāśair arimedaiś ca plakṣa-nyagrodha-pippalaiḥ, bhārata |
Sañjaya said: “O Bhārata, thereafter they began to shower one another with a bewildering variety of weapons: iron clubs and bars, tridents, maces, pestles and hammers; swords, spears and lances; sharp nārācas, bhallas and arrows; discs and axes; iron balls, bhindipālas, gośīrṣa missiles, and even mortar-like projectiles. They also struck each other with uprooted, great-branched trees—śamī, pīlu, kadamba, campaka, iṅguda, badarī, flowering kovidāra, palāśa, arimeda, and huge plakṣa, nyagrodha and pippala—and even battered one another with massive mountain-peaks filled with many kinds of minerals.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores how war, once unleashed, tends to escalate beyond restraint: not only crafted weapons but even nature (trees, mountain-peaks) is turned into an instrument of harm. Implicitly it warns that violence corrodes limits and draws everything into its destructive logic, challenging the ideal of righteous (dharma-guided) combat.
Sañjaya describes a phase of the battle where the opposing forces attack each other with an overwhelming barrage—standard weapons alongside improvised missiles like uprooted trees and even mountain-peaks—conveying the ferocity and near-uncontrolled intensity of the fighting.