Shloka 34
भीष्मवधाय प्रयाणम् — The Advance toward Bhīṣma and Counter-Engagements
निहतैर्मत्तमातज्ैः शोणितौघपरिप्लुतै: । भूर्भाति भरतश्रेष्ठ पर्वतैराचिता यथा,भरतश्रेष्ठ) मरकर गिरे हुए मतवाले हाथी खूनसे लथपथ हो रहे थे। उनसे ढकी हुई वहाँकी भूमि पर्वतोंसे व्याप्त-सी जान पड़ती थी
sañjaya uvāca |
nihatāir mattamātangaiḥ śoṇitaughapariplutaiḥ |
bhūrbhāti bharataśreṣṭha parvatair ācitā yathā ||
Sañjaya said: O best of the Bharatas, the earth—covered with fallen, rut-maddened elephants and flooded with torrents of blood—appeared as though it were strewn with mountains. The image underscores the moral weight of war: even the mightiest beings become mere heaps upon the ground, and the battlefield’s grandeur is inseparable from its grievous cost.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse conveys the stark ethical gravity of war: power and grandeur collapse into devastation, and the battlefield’s ‘mountain-like’ heaps of slain elephants highlight impermanence and the human cost that accompanies martial glory.
Sañjaya describes the Kurukṣetra battlefield to Dhṛtarāṣṭra: many rut-maddened war-elephants have been slain, blood flows in torrents, and the ground looks as though it is covered with mountains because of the piled bodies.