Shloka 30
Nakula’s Engagement with Citra-sena and Karṇa’s Sons; Śalya Re-stabilizes the Kaurava Host
भुजनक्रा धनु:स्रोता हस्तिशैला हयोपला । मेदोमज्जाकर्दमिनी छत्रहंसा गदोडुपा
bhujanakrā dhanuḥsrotā hastiśailā hayopalā | medomajjākardaminī chatrahaṃsā gadodupā ||
Sañjaya said: Then, on that battlefield, a river of blood began to flow, as though running toward the world beyond. Blood itself was its water; chariots looked like its whirlpools; banners stood like trees along its banks. Bones seemed like pebbles and stones; severed arms appeared like reeds. Bows were its streams; elephants were like mountains on its sides, and horses like boulders. Fat and marrow formed its mire; parasols were its swans, and maces its boats—so the slaughter was pictured as a dreadful crossing.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses an extended metaphor—a river made of blood and battlefield debris—to convey the terrifying moral cost of war. Even when war is fought under the banner of duty, its reality is dehumanizing and destructive, reminding the listener to see beyond victory to the suffering and karmic weight of violence.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra the scene of the Kurukṣetra battle: slaughter has become so intense that it is poetically described as a blood-river, with weapons, bodies, and royal insignia appearing as features of a river—streams, banks, mud, swans, and boats.