Shloka 17
Droṇa-parva Adhyāya 125: Duryodhana’s despair and vow after Jayadratha’s fall (जयद्रथवधे दुर्योधनविलापः)
हयैश्व कनकापीडै: पतितैस्तत्र मेदिनी । शैनेयशरसंकृत्तै: शोणितौघपरिप्लुतै:
hayaiś ca kanakāpīḍaiḥ patitais tatra medinī | śaineyaśarasaṅkṛttaiḥ śoṇitaughapariplutaiḥ ||
Sañjaya said: There the earth was strewn with fallen horses, their golden head-ornaments cast down; and it was flooded by torrents of blood from those cut down by the arrows of Śaineya—an image of war’s ruin, where splendor and life alike are reduced to the same dust, warning how violence overwhelms all worldly display.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the moral cost of war: even what is splendid and prestigious (golden ornaments, mighty cavalry) becomes meaningless amid slaughter. It implicitly cautions that violence overwhelms worldly grandeur and leaves only devastation.
Sañjaya describes the battlefield scene: horses and their golden trappings lie fallen, and the ground is inundated with streams of blood from those cut down by Śaineya (Sātyaki) with his arrows, emphasizing the intensity of his assault.