Shloka 806
युधिष्ठिरस्य धनंजय-प्रति गर्हा
Yudhiṣṭhira’s Reproach to Dhanaṃjaya
मुष्टियुद्धे नियुद्धं च देहपाप्मासुनाशनम् । दोनों दलोंके सैनिक एक-दूसरेके केश पकड़कर खींचते
sañjaya uvāca |
muṣṭiyuddhe niyuddhaṃ ca dehapāpmāsunāśanam |
Sañjaya said: “In the clash of fists and close grappling, the combat became a destroyer of bodies, of life-breath, and of sin. The soldiers of both armies seized one another by the hair, dragged, bit with their teeth, tore with their nails, struck with their fists, and fell into wrestler-like combat. Thus the battle raged as a grim ‘purifier’—consuming physical strength and life, and, in the warrior’s ethic, burning away accumulated demerit through violent ordeal.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames extreme hand-to-hand violence as simultaneously destructive and, within the epic’s warrior worldview, expiatory: battle annihilates the body and life, yet is also portrayed as capable of ‘burning away’ sin through the harsh ordeal of combat and death.
Sañjaya describes the fighting degenerating into brutal close-quarters brawling—hair-pulling, biting, scratching, and punching—so that the battlefield resembles a mass wrestling match, emphasizing the ferocity and intimacy of the slaughter.