Shloka 52
शल्यपर्व — चतुर्विंशोऽध्यायः | Śalya Parva, Chapter 24: Disruption of Kaurava Formations and the Elephant Encirclement
कुन्तखड््गशरैघोरंं शक्तिकण्टकसंकुलम् । गदापरिघपन्थानं रथनागमहाद्रुमम्
kuntakhaḍgaśaraighoraṁ śaktikaṇṭakasaṅkulam | gadāparighapanthānaṁ rathanāgamahādrumam ||
Sañjaya said: “It was a dreadful scene—bristling with spears, swords, and showers of arrows; crowded with javelins like thorns; with maces and iron bars forming the very pathways; and with chariots and elephants standing like great trees.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse offers no direct moral injunction; its ethical force lies in starkly portraying war as a landscape of hazards—where weapons become ‘paths’ and living forces (chariots, elephants) resemble immovable ‘trees’—inviting reflection on the grave cost and dehumanizing density of violence.
Sañjaya is reporting to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, describing the battlefield as terrifyingly packed with weapons and war-engines—spears, swords, arrows, javelins, maces, iron bars—while chariots and elephants loom like great trees, emphasizing the intensity and danger of the ongoing combat.