Shloka 1173
Sauptika Parva, Adhyaya 8 — Dhṛṣṭadyumna-vadha and the Camp’s Nocturnal Rout
अंसदेशे निहत्यान्यान् काये प्रावेशयच्छिर: । बहुत-से मनुष्योंको अश्वत्थामाने कटिभागसे ही काट डाला और कितनोंको कर्णहीन कर दिया। दूसरे-दूसरे योद्धाओंके कंधेपर चोट करके उनके सिरको धड़में घुसेड़ दिया
sañjaya uvāca | aṃsadeśe nihatya anyān kāye prāveśayac chiraḥ |
Sañjaya said: Having struck down others by blows upon the shoulder-region, he forced their severed heads back into their bodies. In that night of ruthless slaughter, Aśvatthāmā cut many men down at the waist and mutilated others, leaving them earless—an act marked not by righteous combat but by cruel, indiscriminate violence.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage underscores how warfare, when driven by rage and vengeance, slips from regulated combat into adharma—cruelty and desecration of the human body—highlighting the moral collapse that the epic repeatedly condemns even amid victory and defeat.
Sañjaya describes Aśvatthāmā’s brutal night attack: he strikes warriors on the shoulders, kills them, and in grotesque fashion forces their severed heads into their bodies; the accompanying sense is of indiscriminate slaughter and mutilation rather than fair battle.