Shloka 6
Śalya-hatānantarāṇi: Madrarāja-padānugānāṃ praskandana and the Pandava counter-encirclement (शल्यहतानन्तराणि—मद्रराजपदानुगानां प्रस्कन्दनम्)
बाहुंश्विच्छेद तरसा सायुधान् केतनानि च । चकार च महीं योधैस्तीर्णा वेदीं कुशैरिव
bāhūṃś ciccheda tarasā sāyudhān ketanāni ca | cakāra ca mahīṃ yodhais tīrṇāṃ vedīṃ kuśair iva ||
Dijo Sañjaya: Con ímpetu veloz cercenó los brazos de los guerreros aun cuando sostenían sus armas, y abatió también sus estandartes. Luego dejó la tierra cubierta de combatientes caídos—como un altar sacrificial extendido con hierba kuśa.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses a ritual simile—an altar covered with kuśa grass—to portray the battlefield covered with corpses, highlighting how war can invert sacred order into devastation. It implicitly warns that even when conflict is framed within kṣatriya duty, its human cost remains morally weighty and spiritually unsettling.
Sañjaya describes a fierce fighter (implied by context) cutting off armed warriors’ arms and striking down their banners, then leaving the ground carpeted with fallen bodies, compared to an altar layered with kuśa grass.