Shloka 333
कर्णपर्व — अध्याय ५७
Arjuna’s targeted advance; Śalya–Karṇa dialogue; interception attempts
वदनै: पश्य संछज्ञां महीं शोणितकर्दमाम् । “देखो
vadanaiḥ paśya sañchannāṃ mahīṃ śoṇita-kardamām |
Dijo Sañjaya: “Mirad: la tierra está por completo cubierta de rostros, y el suelo se ha vuelto un lodazal de sangre. El campo de batalla se ahoga bajo los semblantes engalanados de los héroes caídos—radiantes como la luna y las estrellas, adornados con hermosos pendientes, con barba y bigote—yacen ahora como sombrío testimonio de la ruina que trae la guerra.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the devastating cost of war: even heroic beauty and martial glory end in destruction, turning the earth into a blood-soaked mire. It functions as a moral warning about the dehumanizing aftermath of violence and the fragility of worldly splendor.
Sañjaya, narrating the Kurukṣetra war, points out to the listener that the battlefield has become densely strewn with the severed or fallen faces of warriors, and the ground is churned into mud by blood—an intense visual of carnage after fierce fighting.