Shloka 22
Yuddha-yajña-vyākhyāna (The Battle as Sacrifice): Ambarīṣa–Indra Saṃvāda
छिन्धि भिन्धीति य: शब्द: श्रूयते वाहिनीमुखे,सेनाके मुहानेपर जो “काट डालो', फाड़ डालो' आदिका भयंकर शब्द सुना जाता है, वही सामगान है। सैनिकरूपी सामगायक शत्रुओंको यमलोकमें भेजनेके लिये मानो सामगान करते हैं। शत्रुओंकी सेनाका प्रमुख भाग उस वीर यजमानके लिये हविर्धान (हविष्य रखनेका पात्र) बताया गया है
chindhi bhindhīti yaḥ śabdaḥ śrūyate vāhinīmukhe, sa senāke muhāne 'kāṭ ḍālo, phāḍ ḍālo' ityādiko bhayaṅkaraḥ śabdaḥ śrūyate sa eva sāmagānaḥ. sainikarūpāḥ sāmagāyakāḥ śatrūn yamalokaṃ preṣayituṃ mano sāmagānaṃ kurvanti. śatrūṇāṃ senāyāḥ pradhāna-bhāgaḥ tasmai vīra-yajamānāya havirdhānam (haviṣyaḥ sthāpanapātram) ucyate.
Ambarīṣa said: “The terrifying cry heard at the very front of an army—‘Cut them down! Split them apart!’—is, in truth, a kind of Sāman-chant. The soldiers, as if they were singers of the Sāman, seem to ‘sing’ in order to dispatch their enemies to Yama’s realm. And the main body of the enemy host is described as the havirdhāna, the vessel that holds the oblation, for that heroic sacrificer.”
अम्बरीष उवाच