Shloka 3136
Cakravyūha-saṃkalpaḥ, Saṃśaptaka-āhvānaṃ, Saubhadra-vikrīḍitam
Drona Parva, Adhyāya 32
मातड़ो न्यपतद् भूमौ नदीरोध इवोष्णगे । कोई अपने ही सैनिकोंको और कोई शत्रु-योद्धाओंको अपने तीखे बाणोंसे मार रहा था। उस युद्धमें पर्वत शिखरके समान विशालकाय हाथी नाराचसे मारा जाकर वर्षाकालमें नदीके तटकी भाँति धरतीपर गिरा और ढेर हो गया
mātaṅgo nyapatad bhūmau nadīrodha ivoṣṇage |
Sañjaya said: A great elephant collapsed upon the earth, like a riverbank giving way in the heat. In that fierce battle, warriors—some striking down their own side in the confusion, others felling enemy fighters—kept killing with sharp arrows. Thus the massive, mountain-peak-like elephant, pierced by nārāca shafts, fell and lay heaped on the ground like a river’s embankment in the rainy season.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the brutal impermanence of martial power: even the mightiest war-elephant falls swiftly under weapons. It also hints at the moral and practical confusion of war, where discernment can fail and killing becomes indiscriminate—an implicit warning about the ethical cost of unchecked battle-fury.
Sañjaya describes a moment in the Drona Parva battle where a huge elephant, struck by heavy nārāca arrows, collapses to the ground. The fall is compared to a riverbank giving way, emphasizing the suddenness and weight of the collapse amid intense fighting.