Shloka 13
बभ्रुवाहन-धनंजययोः संग्रामः
Babhruvāhana and Dhanaṃjaya’s engagement at Maṇipūra
Devanagari script
शतं शतसहस््राणि शराणां नतपर्वणाम्
Transliteration
śataṃ śata-sahasrāṇi śarāṇāṃ nata-parvaṇām
Translation
Dijo Vaiśampāyana: «Cientos y cientos de miles de flechas—cada una con nudos curvados—(se hallaban/se dispararon)».
Word by Word
शतम्a hundred
शतम्:
Karma
TypeNoun
Rootशत
FormNeuter, Nominative/Accusative, Singular
शतसहस्राणिhundreds of thousands
शतसहस्राणि:
Karma
TypeNoun
Rootशतसहस्र
FormNeuter, Nominative/Accusative, Plural
शराणाम्of arrows
शराणाम्:
Adhikarana
TypeNoun
Rootशर
FormMasculine, Genitive, Plural
नतपर्वणाम्having bent joints/knots (i.e., barbed/with curved nodes)
नतपर्वणाम्:
Adhikarana
TypeAdjective
Rootनतपर्वन्
FormMasculine, Genitive, Plural
Speaker
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Characters & Entities
V
VaiśampāyanaA
arrows (śarāḥ)Character Dynamics
Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)
War Context
Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)
Philosophical Teaching
Political Layer
Meter (Chandas)
Sandhi Notes
Educational Q&A
By stressing an almost unimaginable quantity of weaponry, the verse implicitly points to the ethical gravity of warfare: when violence becomes vast and impersonal, responsibility and restraint (dharma) become even more crucial.
The narrator describes an enormous mass of arrows—characterized as ‘bent-jointed’—to convey the intensity and magnitude of the martial scene being recounted in the Ashvamedhika Parva.