Shloka 54

Devanagari script

वमन्तो रुधिरं चान्ये भिन्नकुम्भा महागजा: | विह्वलन्तो गता भूमिं शैला इव धरातले,कितने ही विशालकाय हाथी खून उगल रहे थे और उनके कुम्भस्थल फट गये थे। बहुत-से व्याकुल होकर इस भूतलपर पर्वतोंके समान पड़े थे

Transliteration

vamanto rudhiraṃ cānye bhinnakumbhā mahāgajāḥ | vihvalanto gatā bhūmiṃ śailā iva dharātale ||

Translation

संजय म्हणाला—कित्येक महागजांचे कुंभस्थळ फुटले होते; ते रक्त ओकू लागले आणि वेदनेने व्याकुळ होऊन पृथ्वीवर असे कोसळले, जणू धरातलावर पर्वतच ढासळले.

Word by Word

वमन्तःvomiting, spewing

रुधिरम्blood

चand

अन्येothers

भिन्नकुम्भाःwhose temples (forehead-bulges) are split

महागजाःgreat elephants

विह्वलन्तःbeing distressed, reeling

गताःhaving gone / having fallen (gone to)

भूमिम्to the ground

शैलाःmountains

इवlike, as if

धरातलेon the surface of the earth

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

Sañjaya

mahāgajāḥ (great elephants)

bhūmi (earth/ground)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights the severe, indiscriminate suffering caused by war: even powerful war-elephants are broken and bleeding. It implicitly presses an ethical awareness of the human choices that unleash such devastation, a recurring Mahābhārata concern alongside discussions of kṣatriya-duty.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya describes the battlefield aftermath: many elephants have their temple-globes ruptured, are spitting blood, and—overwhelmed and unsteady—collapse to the ground like mountains.