Shloka 24
द्रोणपर्व — द्विनवति-तमोऽध्यायः
Sātyaki Pressed by Kauravas; Duryodhana and Kṛtavarmā Engagements
अतिदिद्धाश्न नाराचैर्वमन्तो रुधिरं मुखै: । सारोहा न््यपतन् भूमौ द्रुमवन््त इवाचला:,सवारोंसहित कितने ही हाथी नाराचोंसे अत्यन्त घायल होकर मुँहसे रक्त वमन करते हुए वृक्षयुक्त पर्वतोंके समान धराशायी हो रहे थे
atidiḍḍhāśnān nārācair vamanto rudhiraṃ mukhaiḥ | sārohā nyapatan bhūmau drumavantā iva acalāḥ ||
Sañjaya said: Struck again and again by nārāca arrows, many elephants with their riders, grievously wounded, vomited blood from their mouths and collapsed upon the earth—like tree-clad mountains brought down.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the brutal cost of war: even the mightiest war-assets—elephants likened to mountains—are brought down. It implicitly warns that power and grandeur are fragile under violence, inviting reflection on the ethical weight of battlefield action even when framed as kṣatriya duty.
Sañjaya describes a moment in the Drona Parva battle where elephants, struck repeatedly by heavy nārāca arrows, bleed from their mouths and collapse to the ground along with their riders, compared poetically to tree-covered mountains falling.