Shloka 5
नरश्रेष्ठ नरेश्वर! कृपाचार्य आदि आपके रथी वीरोंने अपने उत्तम बाणोंद्वारा प्रहार करते हुए वहाँ पाण्डव-पक्षके उन ग्यारह महारथी वीरोंको आगे बढ़नेसे रोक दिया। तत्पश्चात् कुलिन्ददेशके योधा नूतन मेघके समान काले, पर्वतशिखरोंके समान विशालकाय और भयंकर वेगशाली हाथियोंद्वारा कौरववीरोंपर चढ़ आये ।। सुकल्पिता हैमवता मदोत्कटा रणाभिकामै: कृतिभि: समास्थिता: । सुवर्णजालैरवितता बभुर्गजा- स्तथा यथा खे जलदा: सविद्युत:,वे हिमाचलप्रदेशके मदोन्मत्त हाथी अच्छी तरह सजाये गये थे। उनकी पीठोंपर सोनेकी जालियोंसे युक्त झूल पड़े हुए थे और उनके ऊपर युद्धकी अभिलाषा रखनेवाले, रणकुशल कुलिन्द वीर बैठे हुए थे। उस समय रणभूमिमें वे हाथी आकाशमें बिजलीसहित मेघोंके समान शोभा पा रहे थे
sañjaya uvāca | naraśreṣṭha nareśvara! kṛpācārya-ādayaḥ tava rathī vīrāḥ svair uttamaiḥ bāṇaiḥ praharantaḥ tatra pāṇḍava-pakṣasya tān ekādaśa mahārathān vīrān agre gantuṃ nivārayām āsuḥ | tataḥ kulinda-deśasya yodhāḥ nūtana-megha-samānāḥ kālāḥ parvata-śikhara-samānāḥ viśāla-kāyāḥ bhayaṅkara-vega-śālinaḥ hastibhiḥ kaurava-vīreṣu samāruhya abhyapatanta || sukalpitā haimavatā madotkaṭā raṇābhikāmaiḥ kṛtibhiḥ samāsthitāḥ | suvarṇa-jālair avitatā babhur gajāḥ tathā yathā khe jaladāḥ savidyutaḥ ||
Sanjaya said: O best of men, O king! Kripa and the other chariot-warriors on your side, striking with their finest arrows, checked those eleven great champions of the Pandava host and prevented them from pressing forward. Then the fighters from the land of Kulinda surged against the Kaurava heroes, mounted on elephants—dark as newly formed clouds, huge as mountain peaks, and charging with terrifying speed. Those Himalayan elephants, splendidly caparisoned and intoxicated with musth, bore upon their backs skilled warriors eager for battle; draped with golden netting, they shone on the field like thunderclouds in the sky streaked with lightning.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how disciplined resistance and coordinated force can halt even elite opponents; ethically, it underscores the epic’s tension between valor and the destructive momentum of war, where skill and spectacle (ornamented elephants, heroic ranks) serve a grim purpose.
Kripa and other Kaurava chariot-warriors block the advance of eleven Pandava great warriors with concentrated arrow-fire. Immediately after, Kulinda fighters charge the Kauravas atop massive, musth-elephants from the Himalayan region, richly adorned, compared to thunderclouds with lightning.