Mahabharata — Shalya Parva, Shloka 22
Chapter 23: Śakuni Reports, Kaurava Advance, and Arjuna’s Penetration of the Host
चचाल शब्दं कुर्वाणा सपर्वतवना मही । सदण्डा: सोल्मुका राजन् कीर्यमाणा: समन्तत:
cacāla śabdaṃ kurvāṇā saparvatavanā mahī | sadaṇḍāḥ solmukā rājan kīryamāṇāḥ samantataḥ ||
சஞ்சயன் கூறினான்—அரசே! தண்டங்களும் எரியும் தீக்குச்சிகளும் எல்லாத் திசைகளிலும் வீசப்பட்டபோது, மலைகளும் காடுகளும் உடனான இந்தப் பூமி பெரும் ஓசையுடன் நடுங்கியது போலத் தோன்றியது.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores how uncontrolled violence in war becomes all-pervading and indiscriminate, so intense that it is poetically described as shaking the very earth; it hints at the ethical cost of conflict, where human aggression seems to disturb the natural and moral order.
Sañjaya reports to King Dhṛtarāṣṭra that the battlefield is in tumult: weapons like clubs and flaming firebrands are being thrown in all directions, creating a deafening roar and making the earth, with its mountains and forests, appear to tremble.
Ask anything about this verse
Curious about the meaning, context, or a word? Ask, and continue the conversation in the Vedapath app.
A free Google sign-in keeps your chat saved across web and the app.
Read Mahabharata in the Vedapath app
Scan the QR code to open this directly in the app, with audio, word-by-word meanings, and more.