“Sanjaya said, ‘When the field of battle which had before been enveloped in darkness and dust had thus become illuminated, heroic warriors encountered one another, desirous of taking one another’s life.[218] Encountering one another in battle, O king, those combatants, armed with lances and swords and other weapons, gazed at one another under the influence of rage. With thousands of lamps blazing all around and with the more blazing lamps of the gods and the Gandharvas, set upon golden stands decked with jewels, and fed with fragrant oil, the field of battle, O Bharata, looked resplendent like the firmament bespangled with stars. With hundreds upon hundreds of blazing brands, the earth looked exceedingly beautiful. Indeed, the earth seemed to be in a conflagration, like what happens at the universal destruction.[219] All the points of the compass blazed up with those lamps all around and looked like trees covered by fire-flies at an evening in the season of rains. Heroic combatants, then, O king, engaged in battle with heroic rivals. Elephants engaged with elephants, and horsemen with horsemen, and car-warriors with car-warriors, filled with joy, on that fierce night at the command of thy son. The clash of the two armies both consisting of four kinds of forces, became terrible. Then Arjuna, O monarch, began, with great speed, to destroy the Kaurava ranks, weakening all the kings.’Mbh 7.163.1 · Mahabharata · DRONA PARVA
Mbh 7.163.1
Mahabharata · translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli
Themes in this passage
WarNatureLeadershipAngerChildrenJoy
War in other traditions
The same theme, as Christianity, Taoism, Islam and Hellenism address it.
For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army.1 Samuel 17:21 · Bible · 1 Samuel
A master of the art of war has said, 'I do not dare to be the host (to commence the war); I prefer to be the guest (to act on the defensive). I do not dare to advance an inch; I prefer to retire a foot.' This is called marshalling the ranks where there are no ranks; baring the arms (to fight) where there are no arms to bare; grasping the weapon where there is no weapon to grasp; advancing against the enemy where there is no enemy.Tao Te Ching 69.1 · Tao Te Ching
Those who believe do battle for the cause of Allah; and those who disbelieve do battle for the cause of idols. So fight the minions of the devil. Lo! the devil's strategy is ever weak.Quran 4:76 · Quran · Women
He spoke, then rush’d amid the warrior crew, And sent his voice before him as he flew, Loud, as the shout encountering armies yield When twice ten thousand shake the labouring field; Such was the voice, and such the thundering sound Of him whose trident rends the solid ground. Each Argive bosom beats to meet the fight, And grisly war appears a pleasing sight.Iliad 14.15 · Iliad · 14
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