Shloka 293
विगाढे रजनीमध्ये शक्रप्रह्लादयोरिव । तदनन्तर गाढ़ अन्धकारसे भरी हुई आधीरातके समय रणभूमिमें इन्द्र और प्रह्नादके समान अभश्वत्थामा और घटोत्कचका घोर युद्ध आरम्भ हुआ
vigāḍhe rajanīmadhye śakra-prahlādayor iva | tad-anantaraṁ gāḍha-andhakārase bharī huī ādhī-rātake samaya raṇabhūmim̐ indra aura prahlādake samāna aśvatthāmā aura ghaṭotkacaka ghora yuddha ārambha huā |
Sañjaya said: In the deep middle of the night, when darkness had grown dense, a dreadful battle began on the battlefield between Aśvatthāmā and Ghaṭotkaca—like the famed combat of Śakra (Indra) and Prahlāda. The simile underscores the superhuman ferocity of the encounter and the moral weight of night-fighting, where fear and confusion magnify the cruelty of war.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how war’s moral peril intensifies in darkness: when visibility and restraint diminish, violence escalates and the battlefield becomes a space where fear and confusion can override dharmic limits. The divine-heroic simile warns that such clashes take on a destructive, almost cosmic magnitude.
Sañjaya reports that at midnight, amid thick darkness, a fierce fight begins between Aśvatthāmā and Ghaṭotkaca on the battlefield, compared in intensity to a legendary combat involving Indra (Śakra) and Prahlāda.