Mahabharata 7.3.166 — Drona Parva, Adhyaya 3, Shloka 166
भीष्मपातने कर्णविलापः | Karṇa’s Lament upon Seeing Bhīṣma Fallen
धार्तराष्ट्रान् प्रथक्ष्यन्ति तथा बाणा: किरीटिन: । “वीर! जैसे बड़ी-बड़ी लपटोंसे युक्त प्रज्वलित हुई आग वृक्षोंको जलाकर भस्म कर देती है
sañjaya uvāca |
dhārtarāṣṭrān pradhakṣyanti tathā bāṇāḥ kirīṭinaḥ |
vīra! yathā mahā-mahā-lapṭaiḥ yuktaḥ prajvalito 'gnir vṛkṣān dagdhvā bhasma karoti, tathā arjunasya bāṇā dhṛtarāṣṭrasya putrān teṣāṃ ca sainikān pradahisyanti |
സഞ്ജയൻ പറഞ്ഞു— ഹേ വീരാ! മഹാജ്വാലകളോടെ ജ്വലിക്കുന്ന അഗ്നി വൃക്ഷങ്ങളെ കത്തിച്ച് ചാരമാക്കുന്നതുപോലെ, കിരീടധാരിയായ അർജുനന്റെ അമ്പുകൾ ധൃതരാഷ്ട്രപുത്രന്മാരെയും അവരുടെ സൈന്യത്തെയും ദഹിപ്പിച്ച് നശിപ്പിക്കും।
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses the fire-and-trees simile to convey the unstoppable force of a righteous warrior’s action in a dharma-yuddha: when conflict becomes unavoidable, adharma-aligned power is depicted as perishing before disciplined valor and divine-backed skill.
Sanjaya, describing the battlefield to Dhritarashtra, foretells that Arjuna (called Kirīṭin) will devastate the Kaurava forces; his arrows are compared to a blazing fire that burns trees to ash.
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