Shloka 38
ते वध्यमाना भीमेन मातड़ा गिरिसंनिभा: । निपेतुरुरव्या सहिता नादयन्तो वसुन्धराम्
te vadhyamānā bhīmena mātaṅgā girisannibhāḥ | nipetur urvyā sahitā nādayanto vasundharām ||
सञ्जय उवाच—भीमेन वध्यमानाः गिरिसंनिभा बहवो गजराजाः सहसैव निपेतुः। तेषां नादैश्च पतनध्वनिभिश्च वसुन्धरा प्रतिनादमकरोत्॥
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the overwhelming destructiveness of war: even beings as powerful as mountain-like elephants collapse, and the earth itself seems to echo the suffering. It implicitly invites reflection on the moral weight and human cost that accompany righteous warfare (dharma-yuddha) when it becomes materially catastrophic.
Sanjaya describes Bhīma cutting down masses of war-elephants. As they are slain, they fall together to the ground, and their cries and the impact of their bodies make the earth reverberate—intensifying the sensory portrayal of the battle.