Shloka 28
Śaṅkha–Likhita Upākhyāna: Daṇḍa, Confession, and the Purification of Kingship (शङ्ख-लिखितोपाख्यानम्)
हुत्वा तस्मिन् यज्ञवद्दावथारीन् पापान्मुक्तो राजसिंहस्तरस्वी | प्राणान् हुत्वा चावभूथे रणे स वाजिग्रीवो मोदते देवलोके,“उनका धनुष ही यूप था, करधनी प्रत्यज्चाके समान थी, बाण खुकु और तलवार खुवाका काम दे रही थी, रक्त ही घृतके तुल्य था, इच्छानुसार विचरनेवाला रथ ही वेदी था, युद्ध अग्नि था और चारों प्रधान घोड़े ही ब्रह्मा आदि चारों ऋत्विज् थे। इस प्रकार वे वेगशाली राजसिंह हयग्रीव उस यज्ञरूपी अग्निमें शत्रुओंकी आहुति देकर पापसे मुक्त हो गये तथा अपने प्राणोंको होमकर युद्धकी समाप्तिरूपी अवभूथ-स्नान करके वे इस समय देवलोकमें आनन्दित हो रहे हैं
vaiśampāyana uvāca | hutvā tasmin yajñavad dāvathārīn pāpān mukto rājasiṁhas tarasvī | prāṇān hutvā cāvabhūthe raṇe sa vājigrīvo modate devaloke |
Vaiśampāyana said: Having offered his foes there as oblations, as though in a sacrifice, the mighty lion among kings was freed from sin. And having offered up his very life-breaths, and having performed, as it were, the concluding ablution of that sacrifice in the battlefield, that horse-necked hero now rejoices in the world of the gods. The passage frames war in the imagery of a Vedic rite: weapons and chariot become sacrificial implements, blood becomes ghee, and the battlefield becomes the fire—suggesting that disciplined, duty-bound combat and self-offering can be construed as a grim “sacrifice,” culminating in heavenly reward.
वैशम्पायन उवाच