Shloka 7
Adhyāya 17 — गजयुद्ध-वृत्तान्तः, सहदेव-दुःशासन-संघर्षः, नकुल-कर्ण-समागमः
Elephant-battle account; Sahadeva–Duhshasana clash; Nakula–Karna encounter
रथानधिष्ठाय सवाजिसारथीन् नरांश्व पादर्द्धिददो व्यपोथयत् | द्विपांश्न पद्धयां ममृदे करेण द्विपोत्तमो हन्ति च कालचक्रवत्,उनका वह हाथी रथोंपर पैर रखकर सारथि और घोड़ोंसहित उन्हें चूर-चूर कर डालता था। पैदल मनुष्योंको भी पैरोंसे ही कुचल डालता था। हाथियोंको भी दोनों पैरों तथा सूँड़से मसल देता था। इस प्रकार वह गजराज कालचक्रके समान शत्रु-सेनाका संहार करने लगा
rathān adhiṣṭhāya savājisārathīn narānś ca pādair dṛḍhadāruṇo vyapothayat | dvipāṃś ca pādbhyāṃ mamṛde kareṇa dvipottamo hanti ca kālacakravat ||
Sañjaya said: Mounting the chariots, that foremost of elephants crushed them—chariots together with their horses and charioteers—into ruin. He trampled the foot-soldiers under his feet, and he ground down other elephants with both his feet and his trunk. Thus, like the wheel of Time itself, the lordly elephant began to annihilate the enemy host, displaying the terrifying, impersonal momentum of war where strength, not right, decides the immediate fate on the field.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the battlefield reality that war unleashes a force resembling kāla (Time): overwhelming, indiscriminate, and difficult to restrain. Ethically, it highlights the Mahābhārata’s recurring tension between dharma as an ideal and the brutal momentum of armed conflict, where immediate outcomes are driven by power and circumstance rather than moral discernment.
Sañjaya describes a mighty elephant rampaging through the opposing army: stepping onto chariots and crushing them along with horses and charioteers, trampling infantry, and grinding down other elephants with feet and trunk—likened to the inexorable wheel of Time destroying all before it.