Shloka 30
बिभिदुस्ते मणिस्तम्भान् कर्णान््टशिखराणि च । भग्नोन्मथितश्ड्राणि यन्त्राणि च विचिक्षिपु:,वानर सैनिक वहाँके मणिनिर्मित खम्भों और अत्यन्त ऊँचे-ऊँचे महलोंके कंगूरोंको तोड़ने-फोड़ने लगे। गोलाबारी करनेवाले जो तोप आदि यन्त्र लगे थे, उनके शिखरोंको चूर- चूर करके उन्होंने दूर फेंक दिया
bibhiduste maṇistambhān karṇāṭaśikharāṇi ca | bhagnonmathitaśastrāṇi yantrāṇi ca vicikṣipuḥ ||
Mārkaṇḍeya said: “They smashed the jeweled pillars and the lofty pinnacles and battlements of the mansions. The siege-engines and missile-throwing devices, their projecting tops shattered and their mechanisms wrecked, were torn up and hurled away.”
मार्कण्डेय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the overwhelming force of a divinely aided or extraordinary host in war: even fortified splendor and engineered defenses collapse when power is misused or when adharma invites ruin. It implicitly warns that pride in wealth, architecture, and weaponry is fragile without righteous grounding.
In Mārkaṇḍeya’s narration, the attackers (contextually a vānarasena/monkey host) storm a fortified place, smashing jeweled pillars and high architectural projections, and disabling siege or missile-throwing machines by breaking and uprooting them, then flinging the wreckage away.