Shloka 25
स भिन्नकुम्भ: सहसा विनद्य मुखात् प्रभूतं क्षतजं विमुड्चन् । पपात नागो धरणीधराभ: क्षितिप्रकम्पाच्चलितो यथाद्रि:,गदाके आघातसे हाथीका कुम्भस्थल फट गया और वह पर्वतके समान विशालकाय गजराज सहसा चीत्कार करके मुँहसे रक्तवमन करता हुआ गिर पड़ा, मानो भूकम्प आनेसे कोई पहाड़ ढह गया हो
sa bhinnakumbhaḥ sahasā vinadya mukhāt prabhūtaṃ kṣatajaṃ vimuñcan | papāta nāgo dharaṇīdharābhaḥ kṣitiprakampāc calito yathādriḥ ||
Sañjaya said: “With its temple-region split open, the elephant suddenly let out a loud cry; pouring forth copious blood from its mouth, that mountain-like lord of elephants collapsed to the ground—like a hill brought down when the earth trembles in an earthquake.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the stark impermanence of embodied power: even a ‘mountain-like’ war-elephant can be brought down in an instant. In the Mahābhārata’s war narrative, such images function as a moral reminder of the catastrophic cost of conflict and the fragility of pride, strength, and life amid adharma-driven violence.
Sañjaya reports a battlefield moment in which an elephant’s temple-region is shattered (likely by a heavy blow), after which it cries out, gushes blood from its mouth, and collapses. The fall is compared to a mountain sliding down when an earthquake shakes the earth, intensifying the sense of sudden, overwhelming destruction.