Shloka 25
Yuddha-yajña-vyākhyāna (The Battle as Sacrifice): Ambarīṣa–Indra Saṃvāda
उत्तिष्ठते कबन्धो5त्र सहस्ने निहते तु यः । स यूपस्तस्य शूरस्य खादिरोडष्टास्नरिरुच्यते,सहसीरों वीरोंके मारे जानेपर जो कबन्ध खड़े दिखायी देते हैं, वे ही मानो उस शूरवीरके यज्ञमें खदिरकाष्ठके बने हुए आठ कोणवाले यूप कहे गये हैं
uttiṣṭhate kabaṇḍho ’tra sahasre nihate tu yaḥ | sa yūpas tasya śūrasya khādiro ’ṣṭāsnaḥ smṛtocyate ||
Ambarīṣa said: “When a thousand are slain here, the headless trunks that are seen rising up are, as it were, the sacrificial posts (yūpas) of that hero’s sacrifice—remembered as yūpas made of khadira-wood, eight-angled in form.”
अम्बरीष उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses a stark metaphor: mass killing in war is likened to a sacrificial rite, where the gruesome sight of headless bodies ‘standing’ becomes the yūpa-posts of a warrior’s ‘sacrifice.’ It invites ethical reflection on how violence can be rhetorically sanctified and how such framing affects one’s sense of dharma.
Ambarīṣa describes a battlefield scene in which, after immense slaughter, headless trunks appear to rise. He interprets this image through ritual language, calling them the eight-angled khadira yūpas of the hero’s figurative yajña—an intense poetic comparison between war and sacrifice.