Shloka 30
Adhyāya 195 — Arjuna’s Capability and Restraint Regarding Divyāstras
Udyoga Parva
गजा विंशतिसाहस्रा ईषादन्ता: प्रहारिण: । कुलीना भिन्नकरटा मेघा इव विसर्पिण:
gajā viṁśatisāhasrā īṣādantāḥ prahāriṇaḥ | kulīnā bhinnakaraṭā meghā iva visarpīṇaḥ ||
Vaiśaṃpāyana said: Twenty thousand elephants—bearing stout, beam-like tusks and trained to strike—of noble breed, with their temples split and streaming, moved spreading out like clouds. The scene evokes the swelling momentum of war: disciplined power marshalled in vast numbers, impressive yet ominous in its capacity for harm.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores how immense, well-trained force can appear majestic yet carries grave moral weight: the same disciplined strength that inspires awe also signals the destructive escalation of war, inviting reflection on restraint and responsibility in the use of power.
The narrator describes a massive contingent of war-elephants—noble, aggressive, and in rut—advancing in a broad formation, compared to clouds spreading across the sky, as part of the larger war preparations in the Udyoga Parva.