Mahabharata — Virata Parva, Shloka 2
Virāṭa-parva Adhyāya 23: Report of the Slain Sūtaputras, Royal Orders, and Sairandhrī’s Return
सर्वे संहृष्टरोमाण: संत्रस्ता: प्रेक्ष्य कीचकम् । तथा सम्शिन्नसर्वाजू कूर्म स्थल इवोद्धुतम्
sarve saṁhṛṣṭaromāṇaḥ saṁtrastāḥ prekṣya kīcakam | tathā saṁśinnasarvāṅgaḥ kūrma-sthala ivoddhṛtam ||
Vaiśampāyana said: Seeing Kīcaka, they all trembled—horrified, with their hair standing on end. His limbs had collapsed and drawn in upon themselves, so that he looked like a tortoise pulled from the water and set upon dry land.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores how wrongdoing culminates in disgrace and fear: the sight of Kīcaka’s ruined body becomes a moral warning about the consequences of violent lust and abuse of power, and it implicitly affirms the duty to protect those who are threatened.
After Kīcaka has been killed, the onlookers see his corpse in a grotesquely collapsed state. They are shocked and terrified, and the narrator likens his drawn-in limbs to a tortoise taken out of water and placed on land.