The Conches
The two armies had finished forming before dawn broke fully over Kurukṣetra. Duryodhana walked the line of his own forces, counting them aloud to his old teacher Droṇa less out of confidence than out of the need to hear the numbers spoken. Then Bhīṣma, the grandsire, lifted his conch and blew a long note, and the Kaurava drums, horns and kettledrums answered it in a single roar. From the other side came a different sound. blew the Pāñcajanya; Arjuna the Devadatta; Bhīma the great Pauṇḍra. Yudhiṣṭhira, Nakula and Sahadeva followed, and after them Drupada, the sons of Draupadī, and the long-armed son of Subhadrā. The Mahābhārata says the sound tore through the sky and the earth together, and that it broke the hearts of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's sons. This is the whole scene in miniature: two sides, one noise, and a war that everyone present has already agreed to. Nothing in the first minutes of that morning suggests that the day's most important event will happen inside one man's chest.
✦ Visual cue — Dawn over a vast battlefield, two armies drawn up facing each other, conch shells raised and sounding, dust and banners, wide cinematic landscape.