Shloka 13
धृतराष्ट्र-संजय-संवादः — दुर्योधनस्य ह्रदप्रवेशः
Dhṛtarāṣṭra–Saṃjaya Dialogue: Duryodhana’s Entry into the Lake
महाराज! वहाँ रणभूमिमें कुपित हुए योद्धा एक-दूसरेसे भिड़कर परस्पर चोट करते हुए घूम रहे थे ।।
sañjaya uvāca |
mahārāja! tatra raṇabhūmau kupitā yoddhā anyonyena saṃyujya parasparaṃ prahārān kurvāṇāḥ paribhramantaḥ sma ||
udvṛttanayanai roṣāt sandaṣṭauṣṭhapuṭair mukhaiḥ |
sakuṇḍalair mahī channā padmakijjalka-saṃnibhaiḥ ||
kamalakesarakāntivālaiḥ kuṇḍalamaṇḍitaiḥ kaṭitaiḥ mastakaiḥ pṛthivī channābhavat; teṣāṃ netrāṇi ghūrṇamānāni, roṣavaśāc ca dantair oṣṭhau pīḍitau ||
Sanjaya said: O King, there on the battlefield the enraged warriors closed with one another, wheeling about as they struck each other again and again. With eyes rolling in fury and faces biting down upon their lips, the earth became covered with severed heads still adorned with earrings—dark like the pollen-dust of lotuses, yet gleaming with the radiance of lotus-filaments. Their staring eyes and clenched mouths reveal how wrath, once unleashed in war, reduces human dignity to a grim spectacle and turns the field into a testimony of unchecked rage.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores how anger (roṣa) in war dehumanizes combatants and leaves only ruin; it implicitly warns that when wrath governs action, even valor becomes a cause of moral and physical devastation.
Sañjaya describes the battlefield scene: warriors, furious and locked in close combat, strike each other while the ground becomes strewn with severed heads still wearing earrings, their eyes fixed and lips clenched in rage.