Shloka 14
Aśvatthāmā’s Stuti of Rudra and Śiva’s Empowerment (सौप्तिकपर्व, अध्याय ७)
तस्यां वेद्यां तदा राजंश्रित्रभानुरजायत । स दिशो विदिश: खं च ज्वालाभिरिव पूरयन्
tasyāṁ vedyāṁ tadā rājan śitrabhānur ajāyata | sa diśo vidiśaḥ khaṁ ca jvālābhir iva pūrayan ||
राजन्! उस वेदी पर उसी क्षण अग्निदेव प्रकट हो गए, जो अपनी ज्वालाओं से दिशाओं-विदिशाओं और आकाश को मानो परिपूर्ण कर रहे थे।
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the Mahābhārata’s sense that human violence and decisions unfold under a larger cosmic and ritual horizon: divine forces (here Agni) can appear as signs that actions are being witnessed and measured against order (ṛta/dharma), even amid the moral darkness of war.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that, upon a sacrificial altar, Agni suddenly manifests in a blazing form, his flames seeming to pervade all directions and the sky—an awe-inducing epiphany that functions like an omen and heightens the gravity of the events in the Sauptika episode.