Shloka 32
Karṇa-parva Adhyāya 19 — Saṃśaptaka–Trigarta Assault and Aindra-astra Counter
पर्जन्य इव घर्मान्ति वृष्टया साद्रिद्रुमां महीम् आचार्यपुत्रस्तां सेनां बाणवृष्ट्या व्यवीवृषत्,जैसे वर्षाकालमें मेघ पर्वत और वृक्षोंसहित इस पृथ्वीपर जलकी वर्षा करता है, उसी प्रकार आचार्यपुत्र अश्वत्थामाने उस सेनापर बाणोंकी वर्षा आरम्भ कर दी
parjanya iva gharmānte vṛṣṭyā sādridrumāṃ mahīm | ācāryaputras tāṃ senāṃ bāṇavṛṣṭyā vyavīvṛṣat ||
Sañjaya said: As a rain-cloud at the end of the hot season pours down showers upon the earth with its mountains and trees, so did Aśvatthāmā, the son of the preceptor, begin to drench that army with a relentless rain of arrows—an image that underscores how war turns nature’s life-giving abundance into a weapon of destruction.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses a powerful simile: rain that normally sustains life becomes, in the battlefield context, an image for mass harm. It highlights how human intention can invert nature’s beneficence—turning ‘rain’ into ‘arrow-rain’—and invites reflection on the ethical tragedy of war even amid heroic narration.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that Aśvatthāmā launches an intense barrage, showering the opposing army with arrows, likened to monsoon clouds pouring rain over the earth with its mountains and forests.