Shloka 13
रक्षाश्न वाता: प्रववुर्नीचै: शर्करकर्षिण: । गिरीणां शिखराण्येव न्यपतन्त महीतले,निर्घाताश्न महाघोरा बभूवुलोमहर्षणा: । दीप्तायां दिशि राजेन्द्र मृगाश्नाशुभवेदिन: राजेन्द्र! अत्यन्त भयंकर और रोमांचकारी शब्द प्रकट हो रहे थे, दिशाएँ मानो जल रही थीं और मृग किसी भावी अमंगलकी सूचना दे रहे थे
sañjaya uvāca |
rakṣāśanā vātāḥ pravavur nīcaiḥ śarkarākarṣiṇaḥ |
girīṇāṃ śikharāṇy eva nyapatanta mahītale |
nirghātāśanā mahāghorā babhūvur lomaharṣaṇāḥ |
dīptāyāṃ diśi rājendra mṛgāś cāśubha-vedinaḥ ||
Sañjaya said: “Winds laden with dust and gravel blew low, dragging pebbles along. Mountain-peaks, as it were, seemed to fall upon the earth. Terrifying thunderbolts resounded—dreadful, hair-raising portents. In a direction that looked as though it were aflame, O King, beasts gave signs that foretold misfortune.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores a Mahābhārata motif: when collective conduct sinks into adharma, nature itself appears disordered, presenting ominous signs. Ethically, it frames the coming violence as not merely a human conflict but a moral crisis whose consequences reverberate through the world.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra a sequence of terrifying portents—low, dust-choked winds dragging gravel, seeming collapse of mountain peaks, dreadful thunder and lightning, a quarter of the sky appearing to blaze, and animals behaving as if foretelling calamity—heightening the sense of impending disaster in the war.