Shloka 50
उस समय लोगोंने देखा, इन्द्रके समान महाबली अभिमन्यु रणक्षेत्रमें गिरा दिया गया है। उसके बहुमूल्य आभूषण छिलन्न-भिन्न होकर शरीरसे दूर जा पड़े हैं और वह यज्ञवेदीपर हविष्यरहित अग्निके समान निस्तेज हो गया है ।। इति श्रीमहा भारते द्रोणपर्वणि अभिमन्युवधपर्वणि तृतीयदिवसावहारे समरभूमिवर्णने पञ्चाशत्तमो<5ध्याय:
tadā lokā dadṛśuḥ śakrasamaṃ mahābalaṃ abhimanyum raṇakṣetre nipātitam | tasya bahumūlyāni ābharaṇāni chinnabhinnaṃ bhūtvā śarīrāt dūraṃ prapetuḥ, sa ca yajñavedyāṃ havīṣyarahita ivāgniḥ niṣtejo 'bhavat ||
Then the people beheld Abhimanyu—mighty as Indra—struck down upon the battlefield. His precious ornaments, shattered and torn, were flung away from his body, and he lay bereft of radiance, like a sacrificial fire on the altar when no oblation is offered. The image underscores the moral desolation of war: when a worthy life is extinguished unjustly, the very splendor that should uphold dharma seems to fade from the world.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses a sacrificial metaphor to show that when a noble warrior is brought down through morally compromised warfare, the world’s ‘tejas’ (radiant order) diminishes—suggesting that victory gained at the cost of dharma leaves a spiritual and ethical emptiness.
Sanjaya reports that the onlookers see Abhimanyu, compared to Indra in might, lying fallen on the battlefield; his costly ornaments are broken and scattered, and his body appears lusterless like an altar-fire lacking offerings.