Mahabharata — Shalya Parva, Shloka 81
Kārttikeya-Abhiṣecana: Mātṛgaṇa-Nāma Saṃkīrtana and Skanda’s Commission
नकुलोलूकवकत्राश्न काकवक्त्रास्तथा परे | आखुबश्रुकवक्त्राश्चन मयूरवदनास्तथा
nakulolūkavaktrāś ca kākavaktrās tathā pare | ākhubabhruvaktrāś ca mayūravadanās tathā ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “Some had faces like a mongoose and an owl; others had faces like crows. Some bore faces like rats and like the ichneumon; and some had faces like peacocks.” In that dreadful vision of the battlefield, the narrator stresses war’s dehumanizing horror by showing combatants as if stamped with animal visages—an image of moral collapse and terror amid the slaughter.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse conveys the moral and psychological degradation that accompanies mass violence: when dharma collapses in war, human beings appear—literally in the poet’s imagery—stripped of humane identity, as if reduced to fearful, predatory, or ominous animal forms.
Vaiśampāyana continues a grim description of the battlefield scene, depicting warriors (or figures seen amid the carnage) as having animal-like faces—mongoose, owl, crow, rat, and peacock—intensifying the sense of terror, unnaturalness, and ominous atmosphere surrounding the conflict.