पुनर् द्विपान् द्विपारोहान् वैजयन्त्यङ्कुशध्वजान् ॥
तूणान् वर्माण्य् अथो कक्ष्या ग्रैवेयान् अथ कम्बलान् ॥
घण्टाः शुण्डान् विषाणाग्रान् क्षुरपालान् पदानुगान् ॥
शरैर् निशितधाराग्रैः शात्रवाणाम् अशातयत् ॥
punar dvipān dvipārohān vaijayantyaṅkuśadhvajān ||
tūṇān varmāṇy atho kakṣyā graiveyān atha kambalān ||
ghaṇṭāḥ śuṇḍān viṣāṇāgrān kṣurapālān padānugān ||
śarair niśitadhārāgraiḥ śātravāṇām aśātayat ||
Then, with arrows keenly whetted at the point, he cut down the enemies' elephants together with their riders, their banners, goads, and standards, their quivers, mail, girths, neck-adornments, and blankets, their bells, trunks, the tips of their tusks, the blade-armed fighters, and the foot retinue.
a1357f17c84a · published Jul 19, 2026, 3:22:09 PM UTC
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The enumeration of everything a war elephant carries — from banners and bells to trunk and tusks — and all of it is cut down by the boy's arrows. In this detailed listing of what is destroyed, the fullness of his feat shows itself: nothing stands before him. It is significant that the tradition omits nothing, not even the small things — blankets, bells: destruction is displayed down to every particular. The verse teaches that valor brought to perfection knows no limit, destroying everything from the great to the small; that the detail of the list of what was destroyed testifies to the unmatched nature of the deed; and that one boy, cutting down elephants with all their fearsome trappings, manifests a power before which even the greatest engines of war are in vain — for behind all trappings and equipment stands only mortal flesh, powerless before the true master.