Shloka 47
Chapter 23: Śakuni Reports, Kaurava Advance, and Arjuna’s Penetration of the Host
प्रासानां पततां राजन् रूपमासीत् समन्ततः । शलभानामिवाकाशे तदा भरतसत्तम,भरतकुलभूषण नरेश! उस समय सब ओर गिरते हुए प्रासोंका स्वरूप आकाशमें छाये हुए टिड्डीदलोंके समान जान पड़ता था
prāsānāṁ patatāṁ rājan rūpam āsīt samantataḥ | śalabhānām ivākāśe tadā bharatasattama ||
ਸੰਜਯ ਬੋਲਿਆ—ਹੇ ਰਾਜਨ, ਭਰਤਸ਼੍ਰੇਸ਼ਠ! ਉਸ ਵੇਲੇ ਹਰ ਪਾਸੇ ਡਿੱਗਦੇ ਪ੍ਰਾਸਾਂ ਦਾ ਦ੍ਰਿਸ਼ ਆਕਾਸ਼ ਵਿੱਚ ਛਾਏ ਟਿੱਡੀਆਂ ਦੇ ਝੁੰਡਾਂ ਵਰਗਾ ਲੱਗਦਾ ਸੀ।
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the overwhelming scale of violence in war: weapons fall in such numbers that nature’s most consuming swarms (locusts) become the comparison. Ethically, it functions as a sobering narrative device—war is not heroic abstraction but a crushing, all-encompassing reality.
Sañjaya reports to King Dhṛtarāṣṭra that spears are being hurled in great numbers across the battlefield; as they descend from above, they seem to fill the sky like a locust swarm, conveying the intensity of the exchange of missiles.