Shloka 54
प्रमथ्य च विषाणाग्रै: समुत्क्षिप्ताश्न वारणै: । सचक्राश्न विचक्राश्न रथैरेव महारथा:,कितने ही हाथियोंने अपने दाँतोंके अग्रभागसे पहियेवाले तथा बिना पहियेके बड़े-बड़े रथोंको रथियोंसहित चकनाचूर करके अपनी सूँड़ोंसे उछालकर फेंक दिया
sañjaya uvāca | pramathya ca viṣāṇāgraiḥ samutkṣiptāś ca vāraṇaiḥ | sa-cakrāś ca vi-cakrāś ca rathair eva mahā-rathāḥ ||
Sañjaya said: Many elephants, goring with the tips of their tusks, crushed great chariots—wheeled and wheel-less alike—together with the mighty chariot-warriors; then, lifting the wreckage with their trunks, they hurled it away.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the overwhelming, indiscriminate power of warfare: even the greatest warriors and their proud vehicles are reduced to wreckage by brute force. Ethically, it highlights the fragility of human prowess and the tragic escalation of violence that swallows distinctions of rank and achievement.
Sañjaya describes elephants in the thick of battle: they gore and crush chariots with their tusks, then lift the shattered chariots (and the warriors with them) and fling them away. Both wheeled and wheel-less chariots are destroyed amid the melee.