Shloka 83
युधिष्ठिरस्य धनंजय-प्रति गर्हा
Yudhiṣṭhira’s Reproach to Dhanaṃjaya
नराश्चगजसम्बाधे नराश्चगजसादिनाम् | लोहितोदा महाघोरा मांसशोणितकर्दमा
narāś ca gaja-sambādhe narāś ca gaja-sādinām | lohitodā mahāghorā māṁsa-śoṇita-kardamā ||
Sañjaya said: In that crush of men and elephants—men and the riders who had mounted elephants—the ground became a dreadful, blood-red flood, a mire of flesh and gore.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse functions as a moral indictment of war’s dehumanizing force: when conflict is fueled by adharma—anger, pride, and greed—it culminates in indiscriminate destruction where distinctions of rank and power collapse into shared suffering.
Sañjaya narrates the battlefield at a moment of intense mêlée involving infantry and elephants. The fighting is so severe that the area becomes congested with men and elephants, and the ground is described as flooded with blood and turned into a mire of flesh and gore.