Shloka 17
Kuru-Sainika-Āśvāsana and Vijayaghoṣaṇa
Reassuring the Kuru Soldiers; Proclaiming Victory
प्रावर्तयन्नदीं घोरां शोणितोदां तरज्षिणीम् | अस्थिशैवालसम्बाधां युगान्ते कालनिर्मिताम्
prāvartayannadīṃ ghorāṃ śoṇitodāṃ taraṅgiṇīm | asthiśaivālasambādhāṃ yugānte kālanirmitām |
Vaiśampāyana said: At that moment Pārtha (Arjuna) set in motion a dreadful river—its waters were blood, its waves were blood. Choked with bones as though they were algae, it seemed like a river fashioned by Time (Kāla) itself at the end of an age. The image underscores the moral horror of violence: when wrath is unleashed, the world appears to slide toward dissolution, as if dharma itself were being drowned in blood.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses apocalyptic imagery—a river of blood clogged with bones—to warn that unchecked violence and rage resemble cosmic dissolution (yugānta). It implicitly contrasts such destruction with dharma, suggesting that adharma-driven conflict makes the world feel as though Time/Death itself has taken over.
The narrator describes a terrifying scene as if a river has been unleashed whose water is blood and whose obstructions are bones like algae. The description heightens the sense of catastrophic slaughter and frames it in cosmic terms by likening it to something created by Kāla at the end of an age.