Shloka 42
धनुष्काशां शरावापां गदापरिघपन्नगाम् | हंसच्छत्रध्वजोपेतामुष्णीषवरफेनिलाम्
sañjaya uvāca |
dhanuṣkāśāṁ śarāvāpāṁ gadā-parigha-pannagām |
haṁsa-cchatra-dhvajopetām uṣṇīṣa-vara-phenilām ||
Sañjaya said: “That river (of blood on the battlefield) had bows for its reeds, quivers for its banks, and maces and iron clubs like serpents within it. It was adorned with swan-like parasols and banners, and its foam seemed to be the finest turbans. Thus did the slaughter assume the form of a dreadful ‘Vaitaraṇī’—a moral image of war’s consequence: easy to cross for the steadfast and self-controlled, but terrifying and impassable for the cowardly and undisciplined.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses a stark battlefield simile—turning weapons and insignia into features of a ‘river’—to underline war’s moral weight: courage and self-mastery endure terror, while inner weakness (fear, lack of discipline) makes the same ordeal feel impossible to cross.
Sañjaya poetically depicts the carnage of the battle as a river-like scene: bows resemble reeds, quivers form banks, maces and clubs appear like serpents, and parasols and banners look like swans, conveying the overwhelming, death-filled landscape created by the fighting.