Shloka 57
द्रोणवध-प्रश्नः
Droṇa’s Fall: Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s Inquiry
इन्द्रके वज़के समान जिनका स्पर्श अत्यन्त दुःसह है, जो वीरबहूटीके समान लाल रंगवाले हैं, जिनके शरीरमें विचित्र चिह्न शोभा पाते हैं तथा जो देखनेमें भी अद्धुत हैं, वे घोड़े चित्रायुधको युद्धभूमिमें ले गये ।। बिभ्रतो हेममालास्तु चक्रवाकोदरा हया: । कोसलाधिपते: पुत्र॑ सुक्षत्रे वाजिनो5वहन्,सुवर्णजी माला धारण किये चक्रवाकके उदरके समान कुछ-कुछ श्वैतवर्णवाले घोड़े कोसलनरेशके पुत्र सुक्षत्रको युद्धमें ले गये
sañjaya uvāca |
bibhrato hemamālāstu cakravākodarā hayāḥ |
kosalādhipateḥ putraṃ sukṣatraṃ vājino 'vahan ||
Sañjaya said: Horses—hard to the touch like Indra’s thunderbolt, red as the indragopa insect, their bodies marked with strange variegated signs and wondrous to behold—carried Citrāyudha onto the battlefield. And wearing garlands of gold, horses whose bellies were like those of the cakravāka bird—pale and mottled in hue—bore Sukṣatra, the son of the lord of Kośala, into the fight.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the contrast between the splendor of martial display (gold garlands, extraordinary horses) and the grave moral reality of war: warriors are borne forward by duty and circumstance, even as the outward beauty of arms and mounts cannot soften the suffering that battle entails.
Sañjaya describes a battlefield movement: richly adorned horses carry Sukṣatra, identified as the son of the king of Kośala, into the fight—an image of a new combatant entering the fray amid the grand, vivid pageantry typical of epic war narration.