Shloka 353
पर्वतस्येव शिखरं वज्रुग्णं महीतले | माननीय नरेश! उस घोर एवं भयानक युद्धमें कितने ही हाथी निकट आकर अपनी सूँड्रोंस कुछ आवरणयुक्त रथोंको पकड़ लेते और उन्हें वेगपूर्वक खींचकर सहसा दूर फेंक देते थे। फिर वे महाबली हाथी भी नाराचोंसे मारे जाकर वज्रके तोड़े हुए पर्वत-शिखरकी भाँति पृथ्वीपर गिर पड़ते थे
sañjaya uvāca | parvatasyeva śikharaṃ vajrughnaṃ mahītale | mānanīya nareśa! tasmin ghore bhayānake yuddhe bahavaḥ hastinaḥ samīpam āgatya svatuṇḍaiḥ kavacopetān rathān gṛhītvā vegena ākṛṣya sahasā dūre kṣipanti sma | te ca mahābalā hastinaḥ nārācair āhatā vajreṇa bhinnaparvataśikharavad bhūmau nipetire |
Sañjaya said: “O revered king, in that dreadful and terrifying battle many elephants would come close, seize armoured chariots with their trunks, and with force drag them and suddenly hurl them far away. Yet even those mighty elephants, struck down by sharp arrows, fell to the earth like mountain-peaks shattered by a thunderbolt.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the fragility of even the strongest worldly power: war-elephants appear unstoppable, yet they too fall when struck. The epic simile (a thunderbolt-shattered mountain peak) highlights impermanence and the swift reversal of fortune in violent conflict.
Sañjaya describes the battlefield to the king: elephants charge in, seize and fling armoured chariots with their trunks, but then those same elephants are pierced by nārāca arrows and collapse to the ground like broken mountain summits.