Tatah Shankhash Cha Bheryash Cha

The moment Bhishma's conch sounds, the entire Kaurava army erupts. Hundreds of conches, kettledrums, tabors, drums, and horns blare out all at once. The combined noise is so overwhelming that it fills the entire field of Kurukshetra with a tumultuous roar.

Picture the scene: a vast plain stretching in every direction, hundreds of thousands of soldiers standing in formation, and then suddenly every instrument in the army sounds at the same instant. The word the verse uses is "tumula" (tumultuous), a noise so immense it seems to split the sky.

In ancient warfare, the pre-battle sounding of instruments served two purposes. It raised the morale of one's own soldiers, and it struck fear into the hearts of the enemy. The Kaurava army was making a statement of raw power through sheer volume.

This shloka captures the Kaurava side's full-throated war cry. The next verse shifts the scene to the Pandava side, where Krishna and Arjuna respond with their own divine conches.

The contrast between the two sides is drawn carefully by the text. The Kaurava sound is described as "tumula" (tumultuous, chaotic). The Pandava response in the following verses will carry a different quality entirely.