Shloka 6.58.31
प्रहस्तवधः (The Slaying of Prahasta)
हतवीरौघवस्रांतुभग्नायुधमहाद्रुमाम् ।।6.58.29।।शोणितौघमहातोयांयमसागरगामिनीम् ।यकृत् प्लीहमहापङ्कान्वििकीर्णान्त्रशैवलाम् ।।6.58.30।।भिन्नकायशिरोमीनामङ्गावयवशाद्वलाम् ।गृध्रहंसगणाकीर्णांकङ्कसारससेविताम् ।।6.58.31।।मेदःफेनसमाकीर्णामार्तस्न्तितस्वनाम् ।तांकापुरषुदुस्तारांयुद्धभूमिमयींनदीम् ।।6.58.32।।नदीमिवघनापायेहंससारससेविताम् ।राक्षसाःकपिमुख्याश्चतेरुस्तांदुस्तरांनदीम् ।।6.58.33।।यथापद्मरजोध्वस्तांनळिनींगजयूथपाः ।
bhinnakāya-śiro-mīnāṃ aṅgāvayava-śādvalām |
gṛdhra-haṃsa-gaṇākīrṇāṃ kaṅka-sārasa-sevitām ||6.58.31||
In that ‘river,’ severed bodies and heads were the fish; torn limbs formed its grassy banks—crowded with ‘swans’ that were vultures, and frequented by cranes that were carrion-birds.
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.
Dharma includes reverence for life and a sense of proportion in violence. By portraying the battlefield as a grotesque ecosystem, the text warns that when conflict escalates, dignity and order collapse—an implicit call to fight only when necessary and to avoid adharma such as cruelty and arrogance.
The poet continues the extended metaphor of the battlefield as a river, now detailing its ‘creatures’ and ‘vegetation’ as the remnants of the slain.
A reflective, truth-facing realism (satya-bodha): the willingness to see war as it is, not as glory, encouraging ethical restraint.