Shloka 48
Chapter 23: Śakuni Reports, Kaurava Advance, and Arjuna’s Penetration of the Host
रुधिरोक्षितसर्वाड़ा विप्रविद्धैर्नियन्तृभि: । हया: परिपतन्ति सम शतशो5थ सहसत्रश:
rudhirokṣita-sarvāṅgā vipraviddhair niyantṛbhiḥ | hayāḥ paripatanti sma śataśo 'tha sahasraśaḥ ||
Sañjaya sprach: Ganz vom Blut getränkt, und da ihre Lenker getroffen und ins Wirrsal gestürzt waren, brachen die Pferde immer wieder zusammen—zu Hunderten, dann zu Tausenden.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the catastrophic cost of war: even innocent beings like horses suffer terribly, and when guidance (the charioteer/driver) is destroyed, order collapses into chaos—an ethical reminder of the far-reaching harm of violence.
Sañjaya describes the battlefield scene where horses, their bodies soaked in blood, fall in great numbers because their charioteers/drivers have been struck down, leaving the teams uncontrolled amid the carnage.