दुर्योधनपुरोवातां रथनागबलाहकाम् ॥
वादित्रघोषस्तनितां चापविद्युद्ध्वजैर् वृताम् ॥
द्रोणपाण्डवपर्जन्यां खड्गशक्तिगदाशनिम् ॥
शरधारास्त्रपवनां भृशं शीतोष्णसंकुलाम् ॥
घोरां विस्मापनीम् उग्रां जीवितच्छिदम् अप्लवाम् ॥
तां प्राविशन्न् अतिभयां सेनां युद्धचिकीर्षवः ॥
duryodhanapurovātāṃ rathanāgabalāhakām ||
vāditraghoṣastanitāṃ cāpavidyuddhvajair vṛtām ||
droṇapāṇḍavaparjanyāṃ khaḍgaśaktigadāśanim ||
śaradhārāstrapavanāṃ bhṛśaṃ śītoṣṇasaṃkulām ||
ghorāṃ vismāpanīm ugrāṃ jīvitacchidam aplavām ||
tāṃ prāviśann atibhayāṃ senāṃ yuddhacikīrṣavaḥ ||
[An army] with Duryodhana as its fore-wind, chariots and elephants as its clouds, the sound of instruments as its thunder, surrounded by bow-lightning and banners; with Drona and the Pandava as its rain-clouds, sword, shakti, and mace as its thunderbolt, streams of arrows and astras as its wind, exceedingly full of bitter cold and heat, dreadful, astonishing, fierce, life-cutting, uncrossable -- into that most terrible army those desiring battle entered.
c34cdd6dc807 · published Jul 19, 2026, 4:31:38 PM UTC
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The army appears as a storm cloud: its leader the wind, its elephants the clouds, its weapons lightning and thunderbolt, its arrows the downpour. It is significant that into this "uncrossable" storm the warriors enter of their own will, "desiring battle." The verse teaches that man casts himself into the destructive storm of war; and the tempest of battle, painted as a fearsome grandeur, is in truth a "life-cutting" force into which the madness of strife drives men as into an irresistible flood.