Shloka 50

Devanagari script

प्रेताश्नैव पिशाचाश्न क्रव्यादाश्च॒ मृगाण्डजा:

Transliteration

pretāśnaiva piśācāśna kravyādāś ca mṛgāṇḍajāḥ

Translation

Sañjaya berkata: Medan perang telah menjadi begitu mengerikan sehingga para pemakan mayat—ghoul, pemakan daging, dan makhluk yang lahir dari telur binatang buas—pun tertarik datang untuk melahap mereka yang gugur.

Word by Word

प्रेताश्नाःcorpse-eaters

एवindeed/just

पिशाचाश्नाःflesh-eaters like piśācas / piśāca-eaters

क्रव्यादाःraw-flesh eaters/carrion-eaters

चand

मृगाण्डजाःthose born from deer-eggs (a class of beings)

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

Sañjaya

pretas (the dead/departed)

piśācas

kravyādas

mṛgāṇḍajāḥ (egg-born wild creatures)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights the ethical degradation of war: mass killing creates conditions where death-feeding forces gather, symbolizing how adharma and unchecked violence turn the battlefield into a realm of horror rather than heroism.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya is describing the aftermath/atmosphere of the fighting in the Karṇa Parva: the field is strewn with corpses, attracting ghouls, flesh-eaters, and scavenging creatures—an ominous depiction of the war’s brutality.