Shloka 833
युधिष्ठिरस्य धनंजय-प्रति गर्हा
Yudhiṣṭhira’s Reproach to Dhanaṃjaya
नराश्चगजदेहान् सा वहन्ती भीरुभीषणा । मनुष्य, घोड़े और हाथियोंसे भरे हुए युद्धस्थलमें मनुष्य, अश्व, हाथी और सवारोंके रक्त ही उस नदीके जल थे। उनका मांस और गाढ़ा खून उस नदीकी कीचड़के समान जान पड़ता था। मनुष्य, घोड़े और हाथियोंके शरीरोंको बहाती हुई वह महाभयंकर नदी भीरु मनुष्योंको भयभीत कर रही थी
narāś ca gajadehān sā vahantī bhīrubhīṣaṇā | manuṣya-ghoḍe-hastibhir bhṛte yuddhasthale manuṣyāśva-hasti-svārāṇāṃ raktaṃ eva tasyā nadīyā jalam āsīt | teṣāṃ māṃsaṃ ca gāḍha-raktaṃ ca tasyā nadīyāḥ paṅkavat pratibhāti | manuṣya-ghoḍa-hasti-dehān vahantī sā mahābhayaṅkarā nadī bhīrūn manuṣyān bhayabhītān akarot |
Sañjaya said: A dread-inspiring river, carrying along the bodies of men and elephants, terrified the faint-hearted. On that battlefield crowded with men, horses, and elephants, the blood of men, horses, elephants, and their riders itself became the river’s water. Their flesh and thick, clotted blood seemed like the mire of that river. Sweeping away the bodies of men, horses, and elephants, that most fearsome river struck fear into those who were timid.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the ethical cost of war: when violence becomes total, life is reduced to matter—blood as water, flesh as mud—revealing the collapse of ordinary moral and social order. It functions as a dharmic warning that even ‘necessary’ war carries profound suffering and dehumanization, and that the timid (and, by implication, the conscientious) recoil from such carnage.
Sañjaya narrates to Dhṛtarāṣṭra the terrifying scene on the battlefield: a metaphorical river formed by the blood of men, horses, elephants, and riders, choked with bodies and gore. This gruesome imagery conveys the scale of slaughter and the fear it inspires among those unable to endure the sight.