11.12 A thousand suns Sanjaya speaks
दिवि सूर्यसहस्रस्य भवेद्युगपदुत्थिता
यदि भाः सदृशी सा स्याद्भासस्तस्य महात्मनः
divi sūrya-sahasrasya bhaved yugapad utthitā
yadi bhāḥ sadṛiśhī sā syād bhāsas tasya mahātmanaḥ
If a thousand suns were to rise together in the sky, that light might be something like the splendour of that great being.
Explanation
If a thousand suns were to rise together.
That light might be something like it — and the hedge is the point.
The most quoted image in the book is offered as an approximation that does not quite work. Even at its most vivid the chapter is telling you the comparison is insufficient.
Going further
Word by word
- divi
- in the sky
- sūrya
- suns
- sahasrasya
- thousand
- bhavet
- were
- yugapat
- simultaneously
- utthitā
- rising
- yadi
- if
- bhāḥ
- splendor
- sadṛiśhī
- like
- sā
- that
- syāt
- would be
- bhāsaḥ
- splendor
- tasya
- of them
- mahā-ātmanaḥ
- the great personality
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If a thousand suns were to rise together in the sky, that light might be something like it.
The most quoted image in the book, and note how heavily it is hedged: yadi, if; sadṛiśhī, resembling. The verse is not a description. It is a statement that description has failed, dressed as a simile — and it is the reason this chapter's art had to be non-figurative.