Shloka 22
Cakravyūha-saṃkalpaḥ, Saṃśaptaka-āhvānaṃ, Saubhadra-vikrīḍitam
Drona Parva, Adhyāya 32
रथिना ताडितो नागो नाराचेनापतत् क्षितौ,किसी रथीने नाराचके द्वारा गजराजपर आघात किया और वह धराशायी हो गया। किसी हाथीके वेगपूर्वक आघात करनेपर सवारसहित घोड़ा धरतीपर ढेर हो गया। इस प्रकार वहाँ मर्यादाशून्य अत्यन्त भयंकर एवं महान् युद्ध होने लगा
sañjaya uvāca | rathinā tāḍito nāgo nārācena apatat kṣitau |
サञ्जयは言った。「車戦の勇士が『ナーラーチャ』(nārāca)の矢で象王を撃つと、巨象は大地に崩れ落ちた。かくして乗り物も乗り手も、力と飛び道具とに等しく倒され、そこには広大にして凄惨な戦が起こった—もはや自制の限界を踏み越え、暴力が歯止めを失うとき倫理が崩れ去るさまを露わにしたのである。」
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores how warfare, once it loses restraint (maryādā), rapidly becomes indiscriminate and terrifying. It implicitly warns that when ethical limits collapse, even the mighty—war-elephants, horses, and their riders—are reduced to helplessness, highlighting the Mahābhārata’s recurring concern with dharma under the pressures of conflict.
Sañjaya describes a battlefield moment in which a chariot-warrior strikes a great elephant with a nārāca missile, causing it to fall to the ground. The scene conveys the intensifying ferocity of the fighting, with mounts and warriors being brought down amid a chaotic, boundary-less clash.