Shloka 58
शल्यपर्व — चतुर्विंशोऽध्यायः | Śalya Parva, Chapter 24: Disruption of Kaurava Formations and the Elephant Encirclement
नरान् नागान् समाहत्य हयांश्वापि विशाम्पते । अपतन्त रणे बाणा: पतड़ा इव घोषिण:
narān nāgān samāhatya hayāṁś cāpi viśāṁpate | apatanta raṇe bāṇāḥ pataṅgā iva ghoṣiṇaḥ ||
サञ्जयは言った。「おお民の主よ。人々と大象、さらに馬までも打ち倒したのち、矢は戦場へと降り注ぎ、蝗の群れのように轟きつつ唸りを上げた。ガーンディーヴァより放たれたそれらは、インドラの金剛杵のごとき硬く雷霆の力を帯びて落下し、技と武器が瞬時の滅びをもたらす、戦の容赦なき奔流を映し出していた。」
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the terrifying impersonality of war: when martial skill and powerful weapons are unleashed, destruction spreads rapidly and widely, overwhelming individuals like a swarm. Ethically, it highlights the Mahābhārata’s recurring tension between kṣatriya duty in battle and the human cost that such duty entails.
Sañjaya describes a fierce phase of combat in which volleys of arrows, shot from the famed bow Gāṇḍīva, strike down warriors, horses, and elephants. The arrows are depicted as falling in great numbers and making a loud, swarming sound, intensifying the scene’s violence and scale.