Sacred Concord

Mbh 7.88.3a

Mahabharata · translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli

“Sanjaya continued, ‘Thus addressed by Savyasachin, the mighty-armed Kesava urged the steeds to where Durmarshana was staying. Fierce and awful was the encounter that commenced there between one and the many, an encounter that proved very destructive of cars and elephants and men. Then Partha, resembling a pouring cloud, covered his foes with showers of shafts, like a mass of clouds pouring rain on the mountain breast.[135] The hostile of car-warriors also, displaying great lightness of hand, quickly covered both Krishna and Dhananjaya with clouds of arrows. The mighty-armed Partha, then, thus opposed in battle by his foes, became filled with wrath, and began to strike off with his arrows the heads of car-warriors from their trunks. And the earth became strewn with beautiful heads decked with ear-rings and turbans, the nether lips bit by the upper ones, and the faces adorned with eyes troubled with wrath. Indeed, the scattered heads of the warriors looked resplendent like an assemblage of plucked off and crushed lotuses lying strewn about the field. Golden coats of mail[136] dyed with gore (lying thick over the field), looked like masses of clouds charged with lightning. The sound, O king, of severed heads dropping on the earth, resembled that of falling palmyra fruits ripened in due time, headless trunks arose, some with bow in hand, and some with naked swords upraised in the act of striking. Those brave warriors incapable of brooking Arjuna’s feats and desirous of vanquishing him, had no distinct perception as to when their heads were struck off by Arjuna. The earth became strewn with heads of horses, trunks of elephants, and the arms and legs of heroic warriors. “This is one Partha”, “Where is Partha? Here is Partha!” Even thus, O king, the warriors, of thy army became filled with the idea of Partha only.
Mbh 7.88.3a · Mahabharata · DRONA PARVA

Themes in this passage

WarNatureAngerLeadershipCourage

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

See what all six traditions say about war →

Search every tradition at once

Ask a question in your own words and see how six traditions answer it.