Shloka 373
अध्याय २६ — शल्यस्य सारथ्य-नियोजनं, कर्णस्य प्रस्थानं, उत्पातदर्शनं च
Chapter 26: Śalya appointed as charioteer; Karṇa’s departure; portents
अगम्यरूपा समरे विशीर्णैरिव पर्वतै: । समरांगणमें टूट-फ़ूटकर गिरे हुए पर्वतोंके समान धराशायी हुए हाथियों और घोड़ोंके कारण वहाँकी भूमिपर चलना-फिरना असम्भव हो गया था
sañjaya uvāca | agamyārūpā samare viśīrṇair iva parvataiḥ | samara-aṅgaṇe tūṭa-phūṭa-kara gire hue parvatoṃ ke samāna dharāśāyī hue hāthiyoṃ aura ghoṛoṃ ke kāraṇa vahāṃ kī bhūmi par calnā-phiranā asambhava ho gayā thā |
Sañjaya said: In that battle the field became impassable, as though it were strewn with shattered mountains. For elephants and horses, broken and fallen in heaps like crags, lay collapsed across the ground, making movement there impossible—an image of war’s ruin where pride and power alike are reduced to lifeless obstruction.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the devastating, dehumanizing aftermath of war: even mighty forces (elephants, horses) become inert obstacles. It implicitly warns that martial glory is transient and that violence yields widespread ruin, challenging any easy moral justification for slaughter.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that the battlefield has become impossible to traverse because heaps of fallen, broken elephants and horses lie scattered like shattered mountains, blocking movement across the ground.