Shloka 47
Adhyāya 16: Saṃśaptaka-vrata and the Diversion of Arjuna (द्रोणपर्व, अध्याय १६)
न दिशो नान्तरिक्ष॑ च न द्यौर्नैव च मेदिनी । अदृश्यन्त महाराज बाणभूता इवाभवन्,महाराज! न दिशाएँ, न अन्तरिक्ष, न आकाश और न पृथिवी ही दिखायी देती थी। सम्पूर्ण दिशाएँ बाणमय हो रही थीं
na diśo nāntarikṣaṃ ca na dyaur naiva ca medinī | adṛśyanta mahārāja bāṇabhūtā ivābhavan ||
Sañjaya said: O great king, neither the directions, nor the mid-air, nor the sky, nor even the earth could be seen. It was as though all quarters had turned into arrows—so thickly were missiles filling the field. The scene conveys the moral horror of war at its peak: when weapons dominate perception itself, discernment and humane restraint are eclipsed, and the world appears reduced to instruments of harm.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores how unchecked violence overwhelms perception and judgment: when the battlefield is saturated with weapons, the very world (directions, sky, earth) seems to vanish, suggesting the ethical cost of war—loss of clarity, restraint, and humane orientation.
Sañjaya reports to King Dhṛtarāṣṭra that the fighting has become so intense and the air so filled with arrows that one cannot distinguish directions, sky, or earth; everything appears as if transformed into a mass of arrows.