Shloka 16
गजाश्वकायप्रभवां नरदेहप्रवाहिनीम् । शस्त्रमत्स्यसुसम्पूर्णा मांसशोणितकर्दमाम्,वहाँ युद्ध करनेवाले वीरोंने खूनकी नदी बहा दी, जिसका प्रवाह परलोककी ओर ले जानेवाला था। वह रक्तकी नदी हाथी और घोड़ोंकी लाशोंसे प्रकट हुई थी। मनुष्योंके शरीरोंको बहाये लिये जाती थी। उसमें शस्त्ररूपी मछलियाँ भरी थीं। मांस और रक्त ही उसकी कीचड़ थे। पीड़ितोंके आर्तनाद ही उसकी कलकल ध्वनि थे तथा पताका और शस्त्र उसमें फेनके समान जान पड़ते थे
sañjaya uvāca | gajāśvakāyaprabhavāṃ naradehapravāhinīm | śastramatsyasusampūrṇāṃ māṃsaśoṇitakardamām |
Sañjaya said: “There flowed a river of blood born from the carcasses of elephants and horses, sweeping along the bodies of men. It was crowded with weapon-fish, and its mire was flesh and gore.” In this grim image, the battlefield is portrayed as a moral catastrophe: violence becomes a current that carries beings toward the other world, underscoring the dreadful cost of war even when fought under the banner of duty.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses a stark metaphor to reveal the ethical weight of warfare: even when combat is framed as duty, its reality is dehumanizing slaughter, and its consequences carry lives toward death and the afterlife.
Sañjaya describes the battlefield as a literalized ‘river’ of blood formed from fallen elephants and horses, carrying human corpses; weapons are imagined as fish within it, and flesh and blood as its mud—conveying the scale of carnage.