Shloka 25

Devanagari script

ततस्तस्यां विद्युत: प्रादुरास- न्नुल्काश्चापि ज्वलिता: कौरवेन्द्र । घोषश्नास्या: प्रादुरासीत्‌ सुघोर: सहस्रशो नदतां दुन्दुभीनाम्‌,कौरवराज! तत्पश्चात्‌ उससे बिजलियाँ प्रकट हुईं और जलती हुई उल्काएँ गिरने लगीं। साथ ही हजारों दुन्दुभियोंके बजनेके समान बड़ी भयानक आवाज होने लगी

Transliteration

tatastasyāṃ vidyutaḥ prādurāsann ulkāś cāpi jvalitāḥ kauravendra | ghoṣaśnāsyaḥ prādurāsīt sughoraḥ sahasraśo nadatāṃ dundubhīnām, kauravarāja ||

Translation

Sañjaya said: Then, in that very moment, lightning suddenly flashed forth, and blazing meteors began to fall, O lord of the Kurus. And there arose a most dreadful, ominous roar—like the thunder of thousands of kettledrums sounding at once—O king of the Kauravas. The battlefield itself seemed to proclaim, through these portents, the moral weight of the slaughter about to unfold.

Word by Word

• {'tataḥ': 'then, thereafter', 'tasyām': 'in that (situation/time/place)', 'vidyutaḥ': 'lightnings, flashes of lightning', 'prādurāsan': 'appeared, manifested suddenly', 'ulkāḥ': 'meteors, fiery portents (falling fireballs)', 'jvalitāḥ': 'blazing, burning', 'kauravendra': 'O chief of the Kauravas (address to Dhṛtarāṣṭra)', 'ghoṣaḥ': 'sound, roar, din', 'sughoraḥ': 'very terrible, exceedingly dreadful', 'sahasraśaḥ': 'by the thousands, in countless numbers', 'nadatām': 'of those roaring/sounding', 'dundubhīnāṃ': 'of kettledrums/war-drums', 'kauravarāja': 'O king of the Kauravas (address to Dhṛtarāṣṭra)'}

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sañjaya
• Dhṛtarāṣṭra (implied by vocatives: kauravendra/kauravarāja)
• lightning (vidyut)
• meteors/fiery portents (ulkāḥ)
• war-drums (dundubhī)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights how the epic frames war not only as a physical event but as a moral crisis: terrifying portents (lightning, meteors, ominous sounds) signal the ethical gravity of impending violence and the consequences of adharma.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that sudden lightning flashes, fiery meteors fall, and a dreadful roar like thousands of war-drums arises—an atmosphere of ominous signs surrounding the battle events in Droṇa Parva.