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Shloka 24

रणभूमिवर्णनम् — Devāsuropama-yuddha and the ‘River’ Metaphor of the Battlefield

प्रयाणे मद्रराजो5भून्मुखं व्यूहस्य दंशित:

prayāṇe madrarājo 'bhūn mukhaṃ vyūhasya daṃśitaḥ

သဉ္ဇယက ပြောသည်—စစ်တပ် ထွက်ခွာချိန်တွင် မဒြာမင်းသည် စစ်တန်းဖွဲ့၏ ရှေ့တန်းအဖြစ် တည်ရှိလာ하였다—ကိုက်ရန် အသင့်ဖြစ်သော အဆိပ်ဖန်ကဲ့သို့—တိုးတက်မှုကို ဦးဆောင်ကာ ထိုဖွဲ့စည်းမှု၏ ကြမ်းတမ်းသော ဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်ကို ကိုယ်စားပြု하였다။

प्रयाणेat the departure/march
प्रयाणे:
Adhikarana
TypeNoun
Rootप्रयाण
FormNeuter, Locative, Singular
मद्रराजःthe king of Madra (Shalya)
मद्रराजः:
Karta
TypeNoun
Rootमद्रराज
FormMasculine, Nominative, Singular
अभूत्became/was
अभूत्:
TypeVerb
Rootभू
FormAorist (simple past), 3rd, Singular
मुखम्the front/foremost position
मुखम्:
Karma
TypeNoun
Rootमुख
FormNeuter, Accusative, Singular
व्यूहस्यof the battle-array/formation
व्यूहस्य:
TypeNoun
Rootव्यूह
FormMasculine, Genitive, Singular
दंशितःarmed/accoutred (lit. furnished with weapons/armor)
दंशितः:
TypeAdjective
Rootदंशित
FormMasculine, Nominative, Singular

संजय उवाच

S
Sañjaya
M
Madrarāja (Śalya)
M
Madra
V
vyūha (battle-array)

Educational Q&A

The verse highlights the kṣatriya ideal of assuming responsibility at the most perilous point: true leadership in war is shown by taking the foremost position, strengthening the army’s morale and giving the formation a decisive, disciplined edge.

As the forces move out, Śalya—king of Madra—takes the lead at the front of the Kaurava battle-array. The imagery of a ‘fang’ suggests an aggressive, sharpened vanguard meant to strike first and break the enemy line.