Shloka 15
कृष्णेन अर्जुनस्य प्रोत्साहनम् — Kṛṣṇa’s Exhortation to Arjuna
Prelude to Karṇa’s Slaying
नरेश्वर! हाथी हाथियोंसे भिड़कर अपने दाँतोंसे परस्पर पीड़ा दे रहे थे। दाँतोंकी चोटसे घायल हो खूनसे भीगे शरीरवाले हाथी गेरूके रंगसे मिले हुए जलका स्रोत बहानेवाले झरनोंसे युक्त धातुमण्डित पर्वतोंके समान शोभा पाते थे ।। तोमरान् सादिभिर्मुक्तान् प्रतीपानास्थितान् बहून् । हस्तैर्विचेरुस्ते नागा बभज्जुश्वापरे तथा
sañjaya uvāca |
nareśvara! hāthī hāthiyoṃ se bhiḍakara apane dāṃtoṃ se paraspara pīḍā de rahe the | dāṃtoṃ kī coṭa se ghāyala ho khūna se bhīge śarīra-vāle hāthī gerū ke raṅga se mile hue jala-kā srota bahāne-vāle jharnoṃ se yukta dhātu-maṇḍita parvatoṃ ke samāna śobhā pāte the ||
tomarān sādibhir muktān pratīpān āsthitān bahūn |
hastair vicerus te nāgā babhajjuś cāpare tathā ||
Sanjaya said: O king, elephants crashed against elephants, tormenting one another with their tusks. Wounded by the blows of tusks and drenched in blood, they looked like mineral-streaked mountains—reddened like ochre, with streams and springs flowing down their sides. Those great elephants also roamed about with their trunks, seizing many hostile tomara-spears and other missiles that had been hurled at them, and they shattered still others as well.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the brutal cost of war: even mighty beings like war-elephants become instruments and victims of violence. It implicitly cautions that martial prowess and battlefield splendor are inseparable from suffering, a recurring ethical tension in the Mahābhārata’s treatment of kṣatriya-dharma.
Sañjaya describes close combat among war-elephants: they gore each other with tusks, bleed heavily, and appear like ore-streaked mountains with flowing springs. They also use their trunks to catch or fend off hurled tomara-spears and other weapons, breaking many of them.