Shloka 6.58.29
प्रहस्तवधः (The Slaying of Prahasta)
हतवीरौघवस्रांतुभग्नायुधमहाद्रुमाम् ।।।।शोणितौघमहातोयांयमसागरगामिनीम् ।यकृत् प्लीहमहापङ्कान्वििकीर्णान्त्रशैवलाम् ।।।।भिन्नकायशिरोमीनामङ्गावयवशाद्वलाम् ।गृध्रहंसगणाकीर्णांकङ्कसारससेविताम् ।।।।मेदःफेनसमाकीर्णामार्तस्न्तितस्वनाम् ।तांकापुरषुदुस्तारांयुद्धभूमिमयींनदीम् ।।।।नदीमिवघनापायेहंससारससेविताम् ।राक्षसाःकपिमुख्याश्चतेरुस्तांदुस्तरांनदीम् ।।।।यथापद्मरजोध्वस्तांनळिनींगजयूथपाः ।
hata-vīra-ogha-vasrāṃ tu bhagnāyudha-mahādrumām | śoṇita-ogha-mahā-toyāṃ yama-sāgara-gāminīm || yakṛt-plīha-mahā-paṅkāṃ vikīrṇāntra-śaivalām | bhinna-kāya-śiro-mīnāṃ aṅgāvayava-śādvalām || gṛdhra-haṃsa-gaṇākīrṇāṃ kaṅka-sārasa-sevitām | medaḥ-phena-samākīrṇām ārta-santati-svanām || tāṃ kāpuruṣa-dustārāṃ yuddha-bhūmi-mayīṃ nadīm | nadīm iva ghana-apāye haṃsa-sārasa-sevitām || rākṣasāḥ kapi-mukhyāś ca terus tāṃ dustarāṃ nadīm | yathā padma-rajo-dhvastāṃ naḷinīṃ gaja-yūthapāḥ ||
The battlefield became like a river: its banks were heaps of fallen heroes; shattered weapons were its great trees; torrents of blood its vast waters rushing toward Yama’s ocean. Livers and spleens formed its mire; scattered entrails its water-plants; severed trunks and heads its fish; limbs and body-parts its grass. Vultures gathered like swans, and carrion-birds moved like cranes; fat spread like foam, and the cries of the wounded became its murmur. Hard for cowards to cross, it was like a river at monsoon’s end frequented by swans and cranes. Yet the rākṣasas and the foremost monkeys crossed that difficult river—like leaders of elephant herds crossing a lotus-pond dusted with lotus pollen.
Heaps of slain leaders as banks, broken weapons like large trees, torrents of blood as vast stretch of water, liver and spleens as its mire, scattered entrails as duckweeds, severed trunks and heads as fish, fingers and parts of limbs as grass, crowded with swans in the form of vultures, frequented with cranes in the shape of buzzards, overspread with f at in the form of foam, groans of the wounded for its murmur, difficult to cross for cowards, frequented by swans and cranes, that battlefield of river flowed. The Rakshasas and Vanaras swam across the river even though it were difficult to cross as leaders of elephant herds would cross a lotus pond covered with pollen of lotuses.
The passage insists on satya about war: even when undertaken for dharma, battle produces horrific suffering; righteous leadership must never forget this cost.
The narrator depicts the battlefield so filled with corpses and gore that it is imagined as a dreadful river, which both sides nevertheless cross and press through.
Dhairya (steadfast endurance) and utsāha (resolve): the foremost fighters continue despite a scene that would break the fearful.