Shloka 18
रणाजड्ुणं समभवन्म्रावाससंनिभम् | जहाँ-तहाँ मरकर गिरे हुए मनुष्य, हाथी और घोड़ोंसे वह सारी रणभूमि मृत्युके निवासस्थान-सी प्रतीत होती थी ।। १७ है ।। पिनाकमिव रुद्रस्य क्रुद्धस्याभिघ्नत: पशून्,भीमसेनकी उस संहारकारिणी भयंकर गदाको लोगोंने प्रलयकालमें पशुओं (जीवों)- का संहार करनेवाले रुद्रके पिनाक और यमदण्डके समान भयंकर देखा। उसकी आवाज इन्द्रके वज्के समान थी
raṇāj juṇaṁ samabhavan mṛtāvāsa-sannibham | jahāṁ-tahāṁ mṛtakaṁ gire huye manuṣyā hastinaś ca hayāś ca—tena sā sarvā raṇabhūmir mṛtyu-nivāsa-sthānā-sadṛśī pratibhāti sma || pinākam iva rudrasya kruddhasyābhighnataḥ paśūn, bhīmasenasya sā saṁhāra-kāriṇī bhayaṅkarī gadā pralayakāle paśūn (jīvān) saṁharataḥ rudrasya pinākaṁ yama-daṇḍaṁ ca samāṁ bhayaṅkarī dṛṣṭā | tasyāḥ śabda indrasya vajra-sadṛśaḥ ||
Sañjaya said: The battlefield had become like the very abode of Death. Everywhere lay fallen men, elephants, and horses, so that the whole ground seemed a dwelling-place of mortality. And Bhīmasena’s dreadful, slaughter-dealing mace was seen as terrifying as Rudra’s Pināka bow when he rages to destroy living beings at the time of cosmic dissolution, and like Yama’s staff of punishment. Its crash resounded like Indra’s thunderbolt—an image that frames the violence as overwhelming, fated, and morally weighty within the catastrophe of war.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the moral gravity of war: when violence reaches its peak, the battlefield becomes indistinguishable from Death’s domain. By comparing Bhīma’s weapon to Rudra’s and Yama’s instruments, the text frames martial power as awe-inspiring yet bound to destruction and karmic consequence.
Sañjaya describes the scene of carnage: corpses of men, elephants, and horses cover the field. He then highlights Bhīmasena’s fearsome mace, whose sound and effect are likened to divine weapons associated with cosmic destruction and death.