Shloka 26
Bhāgīratha’s Tapas and the Petition to Gaṅgā (गङ्गावतरण-प्रसङ्गः)
छिन्नशीर्षा विदेहाश्न भिन्नत्वगस्थिसंधय: । प्राणिन: समदृश्यन्त शतशो5थ सहस्रश:,सैकड़ों और हजारों ऐसे प्राणी दिखायी देने लगे जिनके मस्तक कट गये थे, शरीर छिन्न-भिन्न हो गये थे, चमड़े छिल गये थे तथा हड्डियोंके जोड़ टूट गये थे
chinnaśīrṣā videhāś ca bhinnatvag-asthi-sandhayaḥ | prāṇinaḥ samadṛśyanta śataśo 'tha sahasraśaḥ ||
Lomaśa said: “Then, by the hundreds and by the thousands, living beings came into view—some with heads severed, some with bodies torn apart, some with skin flayed, and some with the joints of their bones broken.” The scene underscores the moral weight of violence and the fearful consequences that follow when beings are subjected to extreme suffering.
लोगश उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse functions as a stark ethical warning: violence and cruelty lead to intense suffering, and such imagery reinforces the Mahābhārata’s broader insistence that adharma brings dreadful consequences, while dharma requires restraint and compassion toward living beings.
Lomaśa describes a terrifying sight in which innumerable beings appear in mangled conditions—beheaded, torn, flayed, and with broken joints—emphasizing the horror of suffering encountered in the course of the episode he is narrating.