Shloka 104
Kārttikeya-Abhiṣecana: Mātṛgaṇa-Nāma Saṃkīrtana and Skanda’s Commission
हृष्टा: परिपतन्ति सम महापारिषदास्तथा । दीर्घग्रीवा दीर्घनखा दीर्घपादशिरो भुजा:,वे महापार्षदगण हर्षमें भरकर चारों ओरसे दौड़े चले आ रहे थे। उनकी ग्रीवा, मस्तक, हाथ, पैर और नख सभी बड़े-बड़े थे
hṛṣṭāḥ paripatanti sma mahāpāriṣadās tathā | dīrghagrīvā dīrghanakhā dīrghapādaśirobhujāḥ ||
Vaiśaṃpāyana said: “Rejoicing, the great attendants came running in from all sides. Their necks were long, their nails long, and their feet, heads, and arms were all of extraordinary size—an ominous, otherworldly host surging forward in the midst of the war narrative.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse primarily serves a narrative-ethical function: it heightens the sense that war unleashes forces beyond ordinary human control, where ominous, abnormal signs accompany adharma and mass destruction, warning the listener about the moral and cosmic disturbance caused by violence.
The narrator describes a group of powerful, strange-looking attendants rushing in joyfully from all directions. Their exaggerated physical features (long necks, claws, limbs) mark them as uncanny beings, intensifying the atmosphere of dread and portent within the Shalya Parva war setting.