Shloka 36

भीष्मरथाभिमुख्यं — Arjuna’s advance with Śikhaṇḍin; Duḥśāsana’s interception

Devanagari script

पताकाध्वजवृक्षाद्या मर्त्यकूलापहारिणी । क्रव्यादहंससंकीर्णा यमराष्ट्रविवर्धनी

Transliteration

sañjaya uvāca |

patākādhvajavṛkṣādyā martyakūlāpahāriṇī |

kravyādahaṃsasaṃkīrṇā yamarāṣṭravivardhinī ||

Translation

Sañjaya dit : «Ses bannières et ses étendards semblaient des arbres alignés le long des rives. Il emportait des monceaux de cadavres humains, les brisant sous l’élan de son courant. Des oiseaux carnassiers s’y pressaient comme s’ils eussent été des cygnes. Ce fleuve ne faisait qu’agrandir le royaume de Yama, nourrissant la mort de la moisson de la guerre.»

Word by Word

• {'patākā': 'banner, flag', 'dhvaja': 'standard, ensign', 'vṛkṣa': 'tree', 'ādyā': 'and the like

• beginning with', 'martya': 'mortal, human', 'kūla': 'bank, shore', 'apahāriṇī': 'carrying away, sweeping off', 'kravyāda': 'flesh-eating (bird/beast)

• carrion-eater', 'haṃsa': 'swan (also a poetic image for purity/serenity)', 'saṃkīrṇā': 'crowded, filled, thronged', 'yama': 'Yama, lord of death', 'rāṣṭra': 'realm, kingdom, domain', 'vivardhinī': 'increasing, augmenting'}

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sañjaya
• patākā (banners)
• dhvaja (standards)
• vṛkṣa (trees)
• kravyāda (carrion-eating birds)
• haṃsa (swans, as simile)
• Yama
• Yama-rāṣṭra (realm of Yama)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores the moral cost of war: the battlefield becomes a landscape where symbols of glory (flags and standards) are reimagined as lifeless scenery, while death (Yama’s realm) expands. It invites reflection on impermanence and the ethical weight of violence even within the frame of kṣatriya-duty.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya narrates to Dhṛtarāṣṭra a gruesome scene from the Kurukṣetra war: a torrent-like ‘river’ of slaughter where banners resemble riverside trees, corpses are swept along like debris, and carrion birds gather densely—an image that signals massive casualties and the dominance of death.