Shloka 74
जैसे सर्दी बीतनेके बाद पर्वतके शिखरपर उत्पन्न हुआ सुन्दर शाखाओंसे युक्त, सुप्रतिष्ठित एवं शोभासम्पन्न कनेरका वृक्ष वायुके वेगसे टूटकर गिर जाता है, उसी प्रकार काम्बोजदेशके मुलायम बिछौनोंपर शयन करनेके योग्य सुदक्षिण वहाँ मारा जाकर पृथ्वीपर सो रहा था ।। महाहाभरणोपेत: सानुमानिव पर्वत: । सुदर्शनीयस्ताम्राक्ष: कर्णिना स सुदक्षिण:
mahābharaṇopetaḥ sānumān iva parvataḥ | sudarśanīyas tāmrākṣaḥ karṇinā sa sudakṣiṇaḥ ||
Sañjaya said: “Adorned with splendid ornaments and towering like a mountain with its ridges, the handsome, copper-eyed Sudakṣiṇa was struck down by Karṇa. Fit for soft couches in the land of Kāmboja, he now lay upon the earth—his fall likened to a beautiful oleander, well-rooted on a mountain peak, that, when winter has passed, is snapped and cast down by a violent wind.” The verse marks war’s grim reversal: royal comfort and dignity are emptied of meaning when dharma is eclipsed by weapons and fate.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the impermanence of worldly status and comfort: even one adorned like a mountain and accustomed to luxury can be felled in an instant by the force of war. It implicitly warns that pride in external splendor is fragile, and that the battlefield reduces all to the same earth.
Sañjaya reports that Karṇa has killed Sudakṣiṇa of Kamboja. The poet intensifies the scene through a simile: Sudakṣiṇa’s fall is compared to a beautiful, well-rooted oleander tree on a mountain peak being broken and thrown down by a strong wind.