Nakula’s Engagement with Citra-sena and Karṇa’s Sons; Śalya Re-stabilizes the Kaurava Host
मातड्ढाश्चाप्यदृश्यन्त शरतोमरपीडिता: । पतन्तस्तत्र तत्रैव छिन्ना भ्रसदृशा रणे,रणभूमिमें बाणों और तोमरोंकी मारसे पीड़ित हो जहाँ-तहाँ गिरते हुए मतवाले हाथी भी कटे हुए बादलोंके समान दिखायी देते थे
mattaḍḍhāś cāpy adṛśyanta śaratomarapīḍitāḥ | patantas tatra tatraiva chinnā bhrasadṛśā raṇe ||
Sañjaya dijo: Incluso los elefantes enloquecidos, atormentados por descargas de flechas y lanzas tomara, se veían desplomarse aquí y allá en el campo de batalla—cercenados y dispersos, semejantes a masas de nubes desgarradas. La escena subraya la fuerza brutal e indiscriminada de la guerra, donde hasta las criaturas más poderosas quedan reducidas a ruina en el choque de las armas.
संजय उवाच
The verse highlights the devastating reality of war: power and size offer no immunity from suffering. Ethically, it functions as a stark reminder of the cost of adharma-driven conflict and the fragility of embodied life amid violence.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra the battlefield scene where maddened war-elephants, struck by arrows and tomara-spears, fall in many places, severed and scattered, their broken forms compared to torn clouds.