Shloka 36
निशीथे पाण्डवं सैन्यमेतत् सैन्यप्रमर्दितम् गजाभ्यामिव मत्ताभ्यां यथा नलवनं महत्,'जैसे दो मतवाले हाथी नरकुलके विशाल वनको रौंद रहे हों, उसी प्रकार इस आधी रातके समय उनकी सेनाद्वारा यह पाण्डव-सेना कुचल दी गयी है
niśīthe pāṇḍavaṃ sainyam etat sainyapramarditam gajābhyām iva mattābhyāṃ yathā nalavanaṃ mahat
Di tengah malam yang pekat, bala Pāṇḍava ini telah dihancurkan dan diinjak-injak oleh pasukan musuh—laksana belukar ilalang yang luas diratakan ketika dua gajah mabuk menerjangnya.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how unchecked force and frenzy can annihilate organized life with terrifying ease. By comparing soldiers to reeds under maddened elephants, it implicitly questions the ethical collapse that accompanies night-time slaughter and the dehumanizing momentum of war.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that, at midnight, the Pāṇḍava forces have been heavily trampled and devastated by the opposing army. He uses a vivid simile: two intoxicated elephants flattening a vast reed-thicket.