Shloka 32
भुजैश्छिन्नैर्महीपाल हस्तिहस्तोपमैर्मथे । समाकीर्णा मही भाति पज्चास्यैरिव पन्नगै:,भूपाल! हाथीकी सूँड़के समान मोटी एवं कटी हुई भुजाओंसे आच्छादित हुई वह रणभूमि पाँच मुँहवाले सर्पोंसे ढठकी हुई-सी जान पड़ती थी
bhujaiś chinnaiḥ mahīpāla hastihastopamaiḥ mathe | samākīrṇā mahī bhāti pañcāsyair iva pannagaiḥ ||
Sañjaya said: O king, the battlefield was strewn with severed arms—thick like the trunks of elephants—so that the earth appeared as though it were covered with five-hooded serpents. The image underscores the dreadful cost of war: royal ambition and wrath reduce the bodies of warriors to lifeless fragments, turning the very ground into a spectacle of terror and moral ruin.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse offers a stark ethical reminder of war’s dehumanizing aftermath: even the valor of kings culminates in mutilation and horror. By likening severed arms to elephant trunks and the ground to a bed of five-hooded serpents, the text highlights the karmic and moral weight of violence and the tragic cost of unchecked ambition.
Sañjaya reports to the king the gruesome condition of the battlefield during the Drona Parva fighting. The ground is covered with cut-off arms, and the scene is so dreadful that it resembles a mass of five-hooded serpents.