Shloka 75
भीष्मस्य मध्याह्नयुद्धवर्णनम् / Mid-day Battle Description: Bhīṣma Engaged by the Pāñcālas
छत्रैस्तथापविद्धैश्न चामरैव्यजनैरपि । पद्येन्दुद्युतिभिश्वैव वदनैश्वारुकुण्डलै:
chatrais tathāpaviddhaiś ca cāmarair vyajanair api | padmendudyutibhiś caiva vadanaiś cārukuṇḍalaiḥ ||
Sañjaya said: “There were also umbrellas cast aside, along with yak-tail fans and hand-fans; and faces radiant like lotus and moon, adorned with beautiful earrings.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the fragility of worldly grandeur: objects of royal honor (umbrellas, fly-whisks, fans) and the beauty of adorned faces appear in a context of upheaval, implying that status and splendor are easily overturned amid the moral and physical devastation of war.
Sañjaya describes a battlefield scene where signs of royalty and comfort lie discarded, while he notes the presence (or the fallen sight) of warriors or attendants whose faces are compared to lotus and moonlight and who wear fine earrings—an evocative contrast between refined courtly life and the harshness of combat.