Shloka 44
कर्णपर्व — पञ्चदशोऽध्यायः | Karṇa Parva, Chapter 15: Pāṇḍya’s Advance and Aśvatthāmā’s Counterstroke
पश्चात्तु शैलवत् पेतुस्ते गजा: सह सादिभि: । वज्िवज्रप्रमथिता यथैवाद्रिचयास्तथा
paścāt tu śailavat petus te gajāḥ saha sādibhiḥ | vajravajrapramathitā yathaivādricayās tathā ||
Sañjaya dit : Une fois leurs trompes tranchées, ces éléphants, avec leurs cavaliers, s’effondrèrent tels des montagnes. Ils tombaient comme des amas de collines fendus et broyés par le vajra, la foudre d’Indra.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the catastrophic, indiscriminate destructiveness of war: even the strongest beings (war-elephants) and their human riders are brought down suddenly. The Indra-vajra simile heightens the sense that battlefield force can resemble a cosmic calamity, inviting reflection on the ethical cost of violence.
Sañjaya describes a moment in the battle where elephants, after suffering grievous injury (trunks severed), collapse with their riders. Their fall is compared to mountain-heaps shattered by Indra’s thunderbolt, emphasizing the scale and terror of the carnage.