Shloka 126
Vāsudeva-Māhātmya: Duryodhana’s Inquiry and Bhīṣma’s Theological Account of Keśava
शिर:कपालाकुलकेशशाद्धला शरीरसड्घातसहस््रवाहिनी । विशीर्णनानाकवचोर्मिसंकुला नराश्वनागास्थिनिकृत्तशर्करा,मुर्दोकी खोपड़ियोंके केश सेवारका भ्रम उत्पन्न करते थे। सहस्रों शरीर उसमें जल- जन्तुओंके समान बह रहे थे। छिन्न-भिन्न होकर बिखरे हुए कवच लहरोंके समान उसमें सर्वत्र व्याप्त थे। मनुष्यों, घोड़ों और हाथियोंकी कटी हुई हड्डियाँ छोटे-छोटे कंकड़- पत्थरोंका काम दे रही थीं
śiraḥkapālākulakeśaśādvalā śarīrasaṅghātasahasravāhinī | viśīrṇanānākavacormisaṅkulā narāśvanāgāsthinikṛttaśarkarā ||
Sañjaya said: “It was like a dreadful river: its banks were a turf of tangled hair and skulls; in it, thousands of heaps of bodies flowed like living creatures in the water. Shattered pieces of many kinds of armor spread everywhere like waves, and the severed bones of men, horses, and elephants served as its pebbles and stones.” In this vision of the battlefield, the poem forces the listener to confront the moral cost of war—how violence reduces persons and valor alike to debris—thereby intensifying the ethical urgency of dharma amid catastrophe.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse is not a doctrinal instruction but an ethical shock: by portraying the battlefield as a ‘river’ made of skulls, bodies, armor, and bones, it exposes the dehumanizing aftermath of war and presses the listener to weigh action against dharma and its consequences.
Sañjaya, narrating events to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, depicts the carnage of Kurukṣetra through an extended metaphor: a gruesome river whose banks and currents are formed from the slain, with armor as waves and severed bones as pebbles.