Shloka 18
गदामुसलरुग्णानां भिन्नानां च वरासिभि: | दन्तिदन्तावभिन्नानां मृदितानां च दन्तिभि:,उस युद्धस्थलमें गदा और मूसलके आघातसे कितने ही मनुष्योंके अंग-भंग हो गये थे, कितने ही अच्छी श्रेणीके तलवारोंसे छिन्न-भिन्न हो रहे थे, कितनोंके शरीर हाथियोंके दाँतोंसे दबकर विदीर्ण हो गये थे और कितनोंको हाथियोंने कुचल दिया था। इस प्रकार असंख्य मनुष्योंके समुदाय अधमरे-से होकर एक-दूसरेको पुकार रहे थे। भारत! उनके वे भयंकर आर्तनाद प्रेतोंके कोलाहलके समान श्रवणगोचर हो रहे थे
sañjaya uvāca | gadāmusalarugṇānāṃ bhinnānāṃ ca varāsibhiḥ | dantidantāvabhinnānāṃ mṛditānāṃ ca dantibhiḥ ||
Sañjaya said: On that battlefield, many men had their limbs shattered by the blows of maces and clubs; many were hewn apart by excellent swords; many were torn open by the tusks of elephants, and many were crushed beneath the elephants’ weight. Thus countless bands of warriors, half-dead, cried out to one another. O Bhārata, their dreadful wails were heard like the tumult of spirits.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds the concrete suffering produced by warfare—maiming, dismemberment, trampling—thereby sharpening the ethical tension in the epic: even when war is framed as dharma for kṣatriyas, its reality is mass anguish, demanding sober moral reflection rather than triumphalism.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra the scene on the battlefield: warriors are broken by maces and clubs, cut down by swords, ripped by elephants’ tusks, and crushed under elephants, while the half-dead cry out in terrifying lamentation.