Mahabharata 3.21.8 — Vana Parva, Adhyaya 21, Shloka 8
Dvārakā’s Distress and the Saubha Engagement (द्वारकाव्यग्रता तथा सौभयुद्धम्)
स तु बाणवरोत्पीडाद् विस््रवत्यसृगुल्बणम् | अभिवृष्टे यथा मेघे गिरिगैरिकधातुमान्
sa tu bāṇavarotpīḍād visravaty asṛg ulbaṇam | abhivṛṣṭe yathā meghe girigairikadhātumān ||
Ваю сказал: «Но, измученный давлением стрел, он начал изливать страшный поток крови. Как бывает, когда туча проливает ливень и гора, богатая красной охрой и минеральными красками, спускает вниз красноватые потоки воды, так и он — с членами, пронзёнными стрелами, — выпустил грозные струи крови».
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the stark cost of violence: even heroic conflict results in intense bodily suffering. Ethically, it functions as a sobering reminder that valor and victory are inseparable from pain and the grave consequences of warfare.
Vāyu describes a combatant (previously introduced in the passage) whose body, pierced and oppressed by many arrows, is bleeding profusely. The scene is intensified through a simile: like a mineral-rich mountain releasing red torrents when drenched by rainclouds, the wounded figure pours out streams of blood.
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