Shloka 16
Adhyāya 140: Rātriyuddhe Droṇa-prāpti-prayatnaḥ
Night engagement and the attempt to reach Droṇa
वारणाश्वमनुष्याणां रुधिरौघसमुद्धवा । संवृता गतसच्त्वैश्व मनुष्यगजवाजिभि:,हाथी, घोड़े और मनुष्योंके रुधिरसमूहसे उस नदीका प्राकट्य हुआ था। वह प्राणशून्य मनुष्यों, हाथियों और घोड़ोंसे घिरी हुई थी
vāraṇāśva-manuṣyāṇāṁ rudhiraugha-samudbhavā | saṁvṛtā gata-sattvaiś ca manuṣya-gaja-vājibhiḥ ||
Sañjaya said: From the torrents of blood of elephants, horses, and men, that river came into being. It was hemmed in on all sides by lifeless bodies—men, elephants, and horses—so that the battlefield itself appeared like a dreadful stream born of slaughter.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the catastrophic moral and human cost of war: when violence becomes unchecked, the very landscape is imagined as transformed by blood and corpses, serving as a stark reminder of the consequences of adharma and relentless hostility.
Sañjaya describes the battlefield in extreme, poetic realism: so much blood has flowed from elephants, horses, and men that it is likened to a river, and that ‘river’ is bordered and choked by the dead bodies of warriors and animals.