Shloka 30
Post–Baka-vadha Residence and the Introduction of Yājñasenī’s Svayaṃvara (आदि पर्व, अध्याय १५३)
अद्य गात्राणि ते कड्का: श्येना गोमायवस्तथा । कर्षन्तु भुवि संहृष्टा निहतस्य मया मृथे,“आज मेरे द्वारा युद्धमें तेरा वध हो जानेपर हर्षमें भरे हुए गीध, बाज और गीदड़ धरतीपर पड़े हुए तेरे अंगोंको इधर-उधर घसीटेंगे
adya gātrāṇi te kaṅkāḥ śyenā gomāyavas tathā | karṣantu bhuvi saṁhṛṣṭā nihatasyā mayā mṛdhe ||
“Today, when I have slain you in battle, let herons, hawks, and jackals—exultant—drag your limbs about upon the ground.” The utterance frames the battlefield as a place where violent triumph is sealed not only by death but by the indignity that follows, underscoring the harsh, dehumanizing rhetoric that often accompanies kṣatriya conflict.
वैशग्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how war can corrupt speech into cruel triumphalism: victory is expressed not merely as defeating an enemy but as wishing post-mortem humiliation. Ethically, it serves as a cautionary example of harsh, adharma-leaning rhetoric that intensifies enmity and degrades human dignity.
A speaker, in the context of combat, declares that once the opponent is killed by him, scavenging creatures—herons, hawks, and jackals—will joyfully drag the fallen warrior’s limbs across the ground, a vivid battlefield taunt emphasizing total defeat.