Shloka 44
Adhyāya 65: Dawn Assembly, Makara–Śyena Vyūhas, and Commander Engagements
उनके शिरों, बाजूबन्दविभूषित भुजाओं और अंकुशोंसहित हाथोंके गिरनेसे ऐसा जान पड़ता था, मानो आकाशसे ओले और पत्थरोंकी वर्षा हो रही हो ।। ह्वतोत्तमाड़ा: स्कन्धेषु गजानां गजयोधिन: । अदृश्यन्ताचलाग्रेषु द्रमा भग्नशिखा इव,मस्तक कट जानेपर भी हाथियोंकी पीठपर टिके हुए गजारोही योद्धाओंके धड़ पर्वतके शिखरोंपर स्थित हुए शिखाहीन वृक्षोंके समान दृष्टिगोचर हो रहे थे
sañjaya uvāca |
teṣāṃ śirobāhubandha-vibhūṣita-bhujānām aṅkuśa-sahitānāṃ hastānāṃ nipātāt tathā pratibhāti sma yathā nabhaso hailāśmavarṣaḥ syāt ||
hatottamāṅgāḥ skandheṣu gajānāṃ gajayodhinaḥ |
adṛśyantācalāgreṣu drumā bhagnaśikhā iva ||
サञ्जयは言った――戦士たちの首と、腕輪で飾られた腕、さらには手にした象鉤（アンクシャ）までもが落ちてゆくさまは、まるで天空から雹と石が降り注ぐかのようであった。しかも象上の戦士たちは、首を断たれてなお、象の肩に身を支えられたまま見えた――山頂に立ちながら梢を折られた木々のように。
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the stark impermanence of bodily power and martial glory: ornaments, weapons, and even the body itself are reduced to falling fragments in war. It implicitly warns that violence strips away human dignity and that worldly distinctions collapse under the force of death and fate.
Sañjaya describes a fierce battlefield moment where severed heads, arms with armlets, and hands holding elephant-goads fall in such numbers that it resembles a shower of hailstones. He then depicts elephant-mounted fighters whose heads have been cut off yet whose torsos remain braced on the elephants’ shoulders, appearing like top-broken trees standing on mountain peaks.