Shloka 6
Adhyāya 36: Ghora-yuddha-varṇanam
A Clinical Description of the Intensified Engagement
मृगपक्षिगणाश्वैव पृतनां बहुशस्तव । अपसव्यं तदा चक्रुरवेदयन्तो महाभयम्,बहुतेरे मृग और पक्षी महान् भयकी सूचना देते हुए अनेक बार आपकी सेनाको दाहिने करके चले गये
mṛgapakṣigaṇāś caiva pṛtanāṃ bahuśas tava | apasavyaṃ tadā cakrur avedayanto mahābhayam ||
Sañjaya said: “Then herds of deer and flocks of birds repeatedly moved around your army in an inauspicious course (to the left), as though proclaiming a great terror soon to come.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the Mahābhārata theme that moral disorder in human action is mirrored by ominous signs in nature. The leftward (apasavya) movement functions as a warning that violence and adharma invite fear and ruin, even before the battlefield outcome is known.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that deer and birds repeatedly circled or moved past the Kaurava host in an inauspicious leftward direction, as if announcing great danger. It is presented as a battlefield omen foreshadowing distress for Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s side.