"'Shalya said, "Behold this awful field of battle, O hero, covered with heaps of slain men and steeds and elephants. Some tracts are covered with fallen elephants huge as mountains, exceedingly mangled, their vital limbs pierced with shafts, lying helplessly, deprived of life, their armour displaced and the weapons, the shields and the swords with which they were equipped lying scattered about. These fallen animals resemble huge mountains riven with thunder, with their rocks and lofty trees and herbs loosened from them and lying all around. The bells and iron hooks and lances and standards with which those huge creatures had been equipped are lying on the ground. Adorned with housings of gold, their bodies are now bathed in blood. Some tracts, again, are covered with fallen steeds, mangled with shafts, breathing hard in pain and vomitting blood. Some of them are sending forth soft wails of pain, some are biting the earth with rolling eyes and some are uttering piteous neighs. Portions of the field are covered with horsemen and elephant-warriors fallen off from their animals, and with bands of car-warriors forcibly thrown down from their cars. Some of them are already dead and some are at the point of death. Covered also with the corpses of men and steeds and elephants as also with crushed cars and other huge elephants with their trunks and limbs cut off, the earth has become awful to look at like the great Vaitarani (skirting the domains of Yama). Indeed, the earth looketh even such, being strewn with other elephants, stretched on the ground with trembling bodies and broken tusks, vomiting blood, uttering soft cries in pain, deprived of the warriors on their backs, divested of the armour that covered their limbs, and reft of the foot-soldiers that protected their flank and rear, and with their quivers and banners and standards displaced, their bodies adorned with housings of gold struck deep with the weapons of the foe.Mbh 8.94.2a · Mahabharata · Karna-parva
Mbh 8.94.2a
Mahabharata · translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli
Themes in this passage
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The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:Joel 2:10 · Bible · Joel
Hast thou not seen that unto Allah payeth adoration whosoever is in the heavens and whosoever is in the earth, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the hills, and the trees, and the beasts, and many of mankind, while there are many unto whom the doom is justly due. He whom Allah scorneth, there is none to give him honour. Lo! Allah doeth what He will.Quran 22:18 · Quran · The Pilgrimage
Cut down the whole forest (of lust), not a tree only! Danger comes out of the forest (of lust). When you have cut down both the forest (of lust) and its undergrowth, then, Bhikshus, you will be rid of the forest and free!Dhp 20.283 · Dhammapada · The Way
Abstaining from speech marks him who is obeying the spontaneity of his nature. A violent wind does not last for a whole morning; a sudden rain does not last for the whole day. To whom is it that these (two) things are owing? To Heaven and Earth. If Heaven and Earth cannot make such (spasmodic) actings last long, how much less can man!Tao Te Ching 23.1 · Tao Te Ching
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