Shloka 59
पतमानस्तु स बभौ पर्णाशाया: प्रिय: सुतः । स भग्न इव वातेन बहुशाखो वनस्पति:,गिरते समय पर्णाशाके प्रिय पुत्र श्रुतायुध आँधीके उखाड़े हुए अनेक शाखाओंवाले वृक्षके समान प्रतीत हो रहे थे
patamānas tu sa babhau parṇāśāyāḥ priyaḥ sutaḥ | sa bhagna iva vātena bahuśākho vanaspatiḥ ||
Sañjaya said: As he fell, the beloved son of Parṇāśā appeared like a many-branched tree, snapped and brought down by a violent wind—an image of sudden ruin amid the relentless ethics-shattering force of war.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores impermanence and the fragility of embodied power: even one who seems strong and ‘many-branched’ can be suddenly broken by forces unleashed in war, reminding the listener of the moral cost and instability inherent in violent conflict.
Sañjaya describes a warrior—identified in the traditional gloss as Śrutāyudha, the beloved son of Parṇāśā—falling in battle, and compares his collapse to a large, many-branched tree torn down by a storm-wind.