Shloka 216
Yuddha-yajña-vyākhyāna (The Battle as Sacrifice): Ambarīṣa–Indra Saṃvāda
सास्य पूर्णाहुतिहोंमे समृद्धा सर्वकामधुक् । वीरोंके शरीरसे संग्रामभूमिमें बड़े वेगसे जो रक्तकी धारा बहती है, वही उस युद्धयज्ञके होममें समस्त कामनाओं को पूर्ण करनेवाली समृद्धिशालिनी पूर्णाहुति है
sāsya pūrṇāhutir home samṛddhā sarvakāmadhuk | vīrāṇāṁ śarīrāt saṅgrāmabhūmau mahāvegāt yo raktadhārā pravahati, saiva tasya yuddhayajñasya home samastakāmanāpūraṇī samṛddhiśālinī pūrṇāhutiḥ |
Ambarīṣa declara que, en el fuego sacrificial de este “guerra como yajña”, la verdadera y abundante oblación final—la que “concede todos los deseos”—es el torrente de sangre que, con gran ímpetu, se derrama desde los cuerpos de los héroes en el campo de batalla. Ese mismo derramamiento se vuelve la ofrenda consumadora del rito, revelando una visión ética severa: la muerte marcial queda ritualizada y el costo de la violencia se interpreta mediante el simbolismo del sacrificio.
अम्बरीष उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents a severe sacrificial metaphor: war is treated as a yajña, and the ‘final oblation’ is the blood shed by heroes. Ethically, it illustrates how martial ideology can sacralize violence—portraying battlefield death as ritually meaningful and ‘fruit-bearing’—while also inviting reflection on the moral tension between dharma-based duty and the human cost of war.
Speaking in Śānti Parva, Ambarīṣa describes the battlefield in ritual terms. He identifies the swift streams of blood from fallen or wounded warriors as the abundant pūrṇāhuti offered into the homa of a ‘war-sacrifice’, thereby interpreting the events of combat through the language and imagery of Vedic sacrifice.