Shloka 43
हारपद्माकरां चैव भूमिरेणूमिमालिनीम् । आर्यवृत्तवतां संख्ये सुतरां भीरुदुस्तराम्
sañjaya uvāca |
hārapadmākarāṃ caiva bhūmir eṇūmimālinīm |
āryavṛttavatāṃ saṅkhye sutarāṃ bhīrudustarām ||
Sañjaya said: “The earth itself appeared like a lotus-lake of necklaces, its waves formed by billowing dust. In that battle it became, like the Vaitaraṇī, easily fordable for men of noble conduct, yet exceedingly hard to cross for the fearful.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse contrasts inner character under crisis: the same terrifying battlefield becomes ‘crossable’ for those grounded in ārya-vṛtta (noble discipline and courage) but ‘uncrossable’ for the fearful. Ethical steadiness is portrayed as the true means of passage through peril.
Sañjaya poetically reports the battlefield’s appearance: dust rises in wave-like surges, and the ground seems like a lotus-lake strewn with necklaces—part of the larger depiction of the horrific ‘river’ of slaughter in the Karṇa Parva, likened to the Vaitaraṇī.