Shloka 3
महागजा भ्राकुलमस्त्रतोयं वादित्रनेमीतलशब्दवच्च । हिरण्यचित्रायुधविद्युतं च शरासिनाराचमहास्त्रधारम्
sañjaya uvāca | mahāgajā bhrākulam astratoyaṃ vāditranemītalaśabdavat ca | hiraṇyacitrāyudhavidyutaṃ ca śarāsinārācamahāstradhāram |
Sañjaya said: “That battlefield became like a ruinous, seasonless storm that brings harm—slaughtering the people. Great elephants massed together like a bank of clouds casting shadow. The missiles themselves were the waters; the clamor of instruments and the rumbling of wheels sounded like thunder. Gold-inlaid, variegated weapons flashed like lightning, and there poured an unbroken rain of great arms—arrows, swords, and iron darts. As the momentum of the fight grew ever more dreadful, streams of blood began to flow, and in the crush of sword-strokes the lives of kṣatriyas were cut down.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse offers an ethical warning through imagery: war, even when framed as kṣatriya duty, rapidly becomes an indiscriminate, seasonless calamity—like a destructive storm—where human life is consumed amid noise, speed, and spectacle.
Sañjaya narrates the battle’s escalation: elephants mass like clouds, weapons fall like rain, gold-ornamented arms flash like lightning, and the roar of drums and wheels resembles thunder; the fighting intensifies into a blood-flowing slaughter of warriors.