Shloka 77
दुर्योधन-कर्ण-संवादः
Duryodhana–Karna Dialogue on Vyūha-bheda and Daiva
शतश: शेरते भूमौ निकृत्ता गोवृषा इव । रुधिरेण परीताड़्ा श्वशृूगालादनीकृता:,'सैकड़ों योद्धा कटकर गाय-बैलोंके समान धरतीपर सो रहे हैं। इन सबके शरीर खूनसे लथपथ हो गये हैं और ये कुत्तों तथा सियारोंके भोजन बन गये हैं"
śataśaḥ śerate bhūmau nikṛttā govṛṣā iva | rudhireṇa parītāḍhāḥ śvaśṛgālādanīkṛtāḥ ||
Sañjaya said: “By the hundreds they lie upon the earth, hewn down like cattle and bulls. Smeared and soaked in blood, they have become food for dogs and jackals.” The verse starkly exposes the moral cost of war: when dharma collapses into slaughter, human bodies are reduced to carrion, and the battlefield becomes a place where dignity and rites are denied.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underlines the ethical horror of war: once killing becomes indiscriminate, the fallen lose even the minimum human dignity of proper rites, and the battlefield turns into a scene of dehumanization where bodies become carrion. It functions as a moral mirror, not a celebration of victory.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra the aftermath of intense fighting: countless warriors lie dead on the ground, cut down in heaps, their bodies drenched in blood and left exposed, attracting scavengers like dogs and jackals.