Shloka 28
शल्यपर्वणि प्रथमाध्यायः — Karṇa-vadha-anantaraṃ Śalya-niyogaḥ, Saṃjayasya Dhṛtarāṣṭra-nivedanam
प्राच्या हता महाराज दाक्षिणात्याश्व सर्वश:ः । उदीच्याश्न हता:ः सर्वे प्रतीच्याक्ष नरोत्तमा:
prācyā hatā mahārāja dākṣiṇātyāś ca sarvaśaḥ | udīcyāś ca hatāḥ sarve pratīcyāś ca narottamāḥ ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “O King, the warriors of the eastern region have been slain; the southerners have been utterly destroyed; and all the men of the north, as well as the best among the westerners, have been killed.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the comprehensive, direction-spanning ruin caused by war: when conflict is driven by adharma and unchecked violence, it consumes all communities alike, sparing neither the ordinary nor the ‘best of men’ (narottamāḥ).
Vaiśampāyana reports to the king that fighters from every quarter—east, south, north, and west—have been killed, conveying the scale of slaughter and the near-total depletion of warriors across regions.