गन्धर्वनगराकारान् विधिवत् कल्पितान् रथान् ॥
शरैर् विशकलीकुर्वंश् चक्रे व्यश्वरथद्विपान् ॥
मुण्डतालवनानीव तत्र तत्र चकाशिरे ॥
छिन्नध्वजरथव्राताः के चित् के चित् क्व चित् क्व चित् ॥
सोत्तरायुधिनो नागाः सपताकाङ्कुशायुधाः ॥
पेतुः शक्राशनिहता द्रुमवन्त इवाचलाः ॥
gandharvanagarākārān vidhivat kalpitān rathān ||
śarair viśakalīkurvaṃś cakre vyaśvarathadvipān ||
muṇḍatālavanānīva tatra tatra cakāśire ||
chinnadhvajarathavrātāḥ ke cit ke cit kva cit kva cit ||
sottarāyudhino nāgāḥ sapatākāṅkuśāyudhāḥ ||
petuḥ śakrāśanihatā drumavanta ivācalāḥ ||
Their chariots, skillfully equipped, resembling in form the phantom cities of the gandharvas, he shattered to splinters with his arrows, leaving the foes without horses, chariots, or elephants. Like groves of beheaded palms, rows of chariots with severed standards stood jutting here and there — some in one place, others in another. War elephants with archers on their backs, in banners, with goads and weapons, toppled like forest-clad mountains smitten by Indra's thunder.
bdfe4df6e105 · publicado 19 jul 2026, 15:00:04 UTC
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The equipped chariots are likened to 'the city of the gandharvas' — a phantom city that seems to hover in the sky and vanishes without a trace. The image runs deep: all the ponderous splendor of an army is as unstable as a mirage, and scatters at a single blow. And the elephants collapsing like forest-clad mountains under the thunderbolt render the same thought in another guise: even what seems as immovable as a mountain falls in its appointed hour. It is significant that the tradition chooses precisely these images of the illusory and the passing — a mirage, a toppled mountain. The verse teaches that all worldly might — equipment, numbers, mass — is but a phantom city, splendid and fragile; and wise is he who perceives, beneath the shine of the visible, its instability, and does not rest his foundation upon it.