Shloka 45
ते क्षत्रिया: कुण्डलिनो युवान: परस्परं सायकविक्षताड्रा: । कुम्भेषु लीना: सुषुपुर्गजानां कुचेषु लग्ना इव कामिनीनाम्,वे कुण्डलधारी तरुण क्षत्रिय परस्पर सायकोंकी मारसे सम्पूर्ण अंगोंमें क्षत-विक्षत हो हाथियोंके कुम्भस्थलोंसे सटकर ऐसे सो रहे थे, मानो कामिनियोंके कुचोंका आलिंगन करके सोये हों
te kṣatriyāḥ kuṇḍalino yuvānaḥ parasparaṃ sāyakavikṣatādrāḥ | kumbheṣu līnāḥ suṣupur gajānāṃ kuceṣu lagnā iva kāminīnām ||
ते क्षत्रियाः कुण्डलिनो युवानः परस्परं सायकविक्षताङ्गाः। कुम्भेषु लीनाः सुषुपुर्गजानां कुचेषु लग्ना इव कामिनीनाम्॥
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the fragility of youthful valor and ornamented pride in the face of war’s reality: even elite warriors are reduced to exhausted bodies. By likening their clinging to elephants’ temples to erotic embrace, it also hints at how attachment—whether to pleasure or to battle-glory—can bind beings to suffering and loss.
Sañjaya describes young, earring-wearing warriors who have been mutually wounded by arrows. Overcome by fatigue, they sleep leaning against the elephants’ temple-swellings, the poet intensifying the scene with a striking simile comparing their posture to lovers clinging to women’s breasts.