Shloka 62
विमिश्रां केशमज्जाभि: प्रदिग्धां रुधिरेण च । पिनाकमिव रुद्रस्य क्रुद्धस्याभिघ्नत: पशून्,रक्तसे भीगी तथा केश और मज्जासे मिली हुई उस गदाको हमने प्रलयकालनमें क्रोधसे भरकर समस्त पशुओं (जीवों)-का संहार करनेवाले रुद्रदेवके पिनाकके समान समझा था इति श्रीमहाभारते भीष्मपर्वणि भीष्मवधपर्वणि चतुर्थदिवसे भीमयुद्धे द्विषष्टितमो5 ध्याय:
sañjaya uvāca | vimiśrāṃ keśa-majjābhiḥ pradigdhāṃ rudhireṇa ca | pinākam iva rudrasya kruddhasyābhighnataḥ paśūn ||
Sañjaya said: “Smeared with blood and matted with a mixture of hair and marrow, that mace appeared to us like the Pināka bow of wrathful Rudra, striking down living beings. In the moral horror of battle, the weapon is seen not merely as an instrument of victory but as a sign of destruction unleashed—an image that underscores how anger and violence can resemble cosmic ruin.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses a terrifying simile—comparing a blood-smeared mace to Rudra’s Pināka—to highlight the dehumanizing, near-apocalyptic character of unchecked wrath in war. It implicitly warns that violence, once unleashed, can resemble indiscriminate destruction rather than righteous action.
Sañjaya describes a mace in the battlefield, coated with blood and mixed with hair and marrow from those struck. The sight is so dreadful that it is likened to the weapon of wrathful Rudra, as if it were annihilating living beings.