Shloka 21
सकुण्डलानां पततां शिरसां धरणीतले । पद्मानामिव संघातै: पार्थश्चक्रे निवेदनम्,पृथ्वीपर गिरते हुए कुण्डलयुक्त मस्तक कमलपुष्पोंके ढेरके समान जान पड़ते थे, मानो अर्जुनने उन मस्तकोंके रूपमें पृथ्वीको पद्मके समूह भेंट किये हों
sa-kuṇḍalānāṁ patatāṁ śirasāṁ dharaṇī-tale | padmānām iva saṅghātaiḥ pārthaś cakre nivedanam ||
Sañjaya said: “On the ground, the heads that fell—still adorned with earrings—looked like heaps of lotus blossoms. It was as though Arjuna, by felling them, had offered the earth a tribute of lotus-clusters.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how epic poetry frames battlefield destruction through ritual and aesthetic imagery: Arjuna’s lethal action is likened to an offering (nivedana) to the earth, suggesting the war’s grim inevitability and the transformation of violence into a solemn, almost sacrificial tableau.
Sañjaya describes the battlefield scene where many warriors’ heads, still wearing earrings, fall to the ground. Their clustered appearance is compared to heaps of lotus flowers, as if Arjuna has presented the earth with lotus-bundles in the form of those fallen heads.