न तु स्मरन्ति संग्रामम् अपि वृद्धास् तथाविधम् ॥
दृष्टपूर्वं महाराज श्रुतपूर्वम् अथापि वा ॥
प्राकम्पतेव पृथिवी तस्मिन् वीरावसादने ॥
प्रवर्तता बलौघेन महता भारपीडिता ॥
घूर्णतो हि बलौघस्य दिवं स्तब्ध्वेव निस्वनः ॥
अजातशत्रोः क्रुद्धस्य पुत्रस्य तव चाभवत् ॥
na tu smaranti saṃgrāmam api vṛddhās tathāvidham ||
dṛṣṭapūrvaṃ mahārāja śrutapūrvam athāpi vā ||
prākampateva pṛthivī tasmin vīrāvasādane ||
pravartatā balaughena mahatā bhārapīḍitā ||
ghūrṇato hi balaughasya divaṃ stabdhveva nisvanaḥ ||
ajātaśatroḥ kruddhasya putrasya tava cābhavat ||
Not even the elders remember a battle of this kind, seen before, O great sovereign, or even hardly heard of before. The earth seemed to shake at that slaughter of warriors, surging, pressed down by the burden of the great flood of the host. The roar of the seething flood of the host, as if propping up the sky, arose -- the roar of the enraged Ajatashatru and of your son.
cbaba9358bb7 · publicado 19 jul 2026, 15:11:21 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
The battle surpasses all that even the elders remember -- the earth itself "shakes," pressed down by the weight of the army. Thus the tradition shows the unprecedented nature of this fray: it exceeds human memory and shakes the very foundation of the world. It is telling that the name "Ajatashatru" -- "he who has no enemy" -- belongs to the gentlest of kings, who leads the most terrible of battles; and in this lies the bitterness of his fate. The verse teaches that there are calamities surpassing all prior experience, before which even the memory of elders falls silent; that violence, carried to its limit, shakes not only men but the earth beneath them; and that even "he who has no enemy" can be cast into the greatest enmity -- not by his own will, but by the wrongdoing of others -- and so peaceableness alone does not shield one from war when it is forced upon him.