Sacred Concord

Mbh 8.15.1a

Mahabharata · translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli

"Sanjaya said, 'Endued with the greatest activity, Drona's son, O king, displaying the lightness of his arms, pierced Bhima with an arrow. Aiming at all his vital points--for he had a knowledge of all the vital points of the body--the quick-handed Ashvatthama again struck him with ninety shafts. Pierced all over with keen arrows by the son of Drona, Bhimasena looked resplendent in that battle like the Sun himself with his rays. The son of Pandu then, covering the son of Drona with a 1,000 well-directed shafts, uttered a leonine roar. Baffling with his own shafts the shafts of his foe in that battle, the son of Drona, O king, as if smiling, then struck the Pandava on the forehead with a cloth-yard shaft. The son of Pandu bore that arrow on his forehead even as the proud rhinoceros, O king, in the forest bears its horn. The valiant Bhima, then, in that battle as if smiling all the while, struck the struggling son of Drona on the forehead with three cloth-yard shafts. With those three arrows sticking on his forehead, that Brahmana looked beautiful like a three-peaked mountain washed with water in the season of rains. The son of Drona then afflicted the Pandava with hundreds of arrows, but failed to shake him like the wind failing to shake the mountain. Similarly the son of Pandu, filled with joy, could not in that battle shake the son of Drona with his hundreds of keen shafts like torrents of rain failing to shake a mountain. Shrouding each other with showers of terrible shafts those two great car-warriors, those two heroes, endued with fierce might, shone resplendent on those two foremost of cars of theirs. Then they looked like two blazing Suns risen for the destruction of the world, and engaged themselves in scorching each other with their rays representing excellent arrows.
Mbh 8.15.1a · Mahabharata · Karna-parva

Themes in this passage

ChildrenNatureWarLeadershipCourageJoyPrideStrength

Children in other traditions

The same theme, as Christianity, Islam and Hellenism address it.

These are the children of Abihail the son of Huri, the son of Jaroah, the son of Gilead, the son of Michael, the son of Jeshishai, the son of Jahdo, the son of Buz;
1 Chronicles 5:14 · Bible · 1 Chronicles
Or hath He daughters whereas ye have sons?
Quran 52:39 · Quran · The Mountain
they reached the low lying city of Lacedaemon, where they drove straight to the abode of Menelaus36 [and found him in his own house, feasting with his many clansmen in honour of the wedding of his son, and also of his daughter, whom he was marrying to the son of that valiant warrior Achilles. He had given his consent and promised her to him while he was still at Troy, and now the gods were bringing the marriage about; so he was sending her with chariots and horses to the city of the Myrmidons over whom Achilles’ son was reigning. For his only son he had found a bride from Sparta,37 the daughter of Alector. This son, Megapenthes, was born to him of a bondwoman, for heaven vouchsafed Helen no more children after she had borne Hermione, who was fair as golden Venus herself.
Odyssey 4.2 · Odyssey · 4
While thus they strive, Tlepolemus the great,[153] Urged by the force of unresisted fate, Burns with desire Sarpedon’s strength to prove; Alcides’ offspring meets the son of Jove. Sheathed in bright arms each adverse chief came on. Jove’s great descendant, and his greater son. Prepared for combat, ere the lance he toss’d, The daring Rhodian vents his haughty boast:
Iliad 5.66 · Iliad · 5

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