Shloka 16
युद्धाय रावणस्य निर्याणं तथा उत्पातदर्शनम्
Ravana’s Mobilization for War and the ظهور of Fatal Portents
सशरैरद्यवदनैस्सङ्ख्येवानरयूथपाः ।मण्डयिष्यन्तिवसुधांसनालैरिवपङ्कजैः ।।6.96.16।।
saśarair adya vadanair saṅkhye vānarayūthapāḥ | maṇḍayiṣyanti vasudhāṃ sanālair iva paṅkajaiḥ ||6.96.16||
«Aujourd’hui, dans la bataille, les chefs des troupes vānara, le visage transpercé de flèches, orneront la terre comme des lotus encore attachés à leurs tiges», dit Rāvaṇa.
"Now with the arrows fixed on their faces the Vanara battalions spread on the earth will adorn the earth like lotuses spread on earth."
FAQs
It cautions against aestheticizing violence—turning suffering into “ornament.” Dharma requires compassion and truthfulness about harm, not poetic glorification of cruelty.
Rāvaṇa describes the aftermath he expects to create on the battlefield, imagining fallen vānara leaders as a grim decoration of the earth.
The implied virtue is moral sensitivity (dayā). The verse shows its opposite in Rāvaṇa’s rhetoric, thereby reinforcing the Ramayana’s ethical stance.