Shloka 22
कर्णपर्व — अध्याय ५७
Arjuna’s targeted advance; Śalya–Karṇa dialogue; interception attempts
साड्रलिन्रैर्भुजाग्रैश्न विप्रविद्धरलंकृतै:,पतितैर्ऋषषभाक्षाणां विराजति वसुंधरा । साँड़के समान विशाल नेत्रोंवाले वेगशाली वीरोंके दस्तानोंसहित आभूषणभूषित हाथ कटकर गिरे हैं। हाथियोंके शुण्डदण्डोंके समान मोटी जाँघें खण्डित होकर पड़ी हैं तथा श्रेष्ठ चूड़ामणि धारण किये कुण्डलमण्डित मस्तक भी धड़से अलग होकर पड़े हैं। इन सबके द्वारा रणभूमिकी अपूर्व शोभा हो रही है
sa-āṅgulīrbhujāgrāiś ca vipraviddhair alaṅkṛtaiḥ, patitaiḥ ṛṣaṣabhākṣāṇāṁ virājati vasuṁdharā |
Sañjaya said: The earth shone with a strange, dreadful splendor, strewn with severed hands—adorned with ornaments and struck down in battle—belonging to heroes whose eyes were large like those of noble bulls. The battlefield’s beauty here is not celebratory but grim: it exposes how martial pride and bodily magnificence are reduced to fragments, reminding the listener of war’s ethical cost and the perishability of embodied power.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the impermanence of physical prowess and worldly adornment: even the most splendid, heroic bodies are reduced to lifeless fragments in war. It implicitly challenges any romanticization of battle by presenting its stark, dehumanizing aftermath.
Sañjaya describes the battlefield after intense fighting: the ground is covered with severed, ornamented hands and other bodily remains of powerful warriors, making the earth appear ‘splendid’ in a grim, horrific sense.