Shloka 34
शड्कुभिदारिता: केचित् सम्भिन्नाश्न परश्वधै:,कुछ मनुष्य बाणोंसे विदीर्ण होकर पड़े थे, कितने ही फरसोंसे छिन्न-भिन्न हो रहे थे, कितनोंको हाथियोंने मसल डाला था, कितने ही घोड़ोंकी टापसे कुचल गये थे, कितनोंके शरीर रथके पहियोंसे कट गये थे और कितने ही कूबरोंसे काट डाले गये थे
śaṅkubhidāritāḥ kecit sambhinnāś ca paraśvadhaiḥ | kecin manuṣyā bāṇair vidīrṇā nipetuḥ, kecid paraśvadhaiś chinna-bhinnā abhavan, kecid hastibhir mṛditāḥ, kecid aśvatāpaiḥ kuṭṭitāḥ, kecid rathacakraiḥ kāyāḥ kṛttāḥ, kecit kūbaraiś chinnāḥ ||
Sañjaya reports the battlefield’s grim spectacle: some warriors lay pierced through by sharp stakes, others were hacked apart by axes; some were crushed under elephants, others trampled by horses’ hooves. Many bodies were severed by chariot wheels, and others were cut down by the chariot’s pole and fittings. The scene underscores the moral cost of war—how, once violence is unleashed, human bodies become mere objects in the machinery of battle.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse functions as a stark ethical reminder of war’s dehumanizing reality: regardless of claims of duty or victory, violence reduces persons to wounded bodies caught under weapons, animals, and machines. It invites reflection on the moral weight (pāpa/duḥkha) that accompanies large-scale conflict, even when framed as kṣatriya duty.
Sañjaya narrates to Dhṛtarāṣṭra the condition of the battlefield: warriors are being pierced by spikes and arrows, hacked by axes, crushed by elephants, trampled by horses, and cut by chariot wheels and chariot poles—an inventory of the many ways combatants are killed and mangled in the Kurukṣetra war.