Shloka 17
आर्तनादस्वनवतीं पताकाशस्त्रफेनिलाम् | नदीं प्रावर्तयन् वीरा: परलोकौघगामिनीम्,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
ārtanādasvanavatīṁ patākāśastraphenilām | nadīṁ prāvartayan vīrāḥ paralokaughagāminīm ||
Sañjaya said: The warriors set in motion a river whose sound was the wailing of the afflicted, whose foam seemed to be banners and weapons, and whose current rushed toward the world beyond. In that battlefield-stream, the very imagery of war becomes a moral indictment: violence turns life into a passage toward death, and the cries of suffering replace all auspicious sounds.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses stark metaphor to expose the ethical cost of war: when violence dominates, the battlefield itself becomes a ‘river’ carrying beings toward death, and the defining sound is not heroism but the cries of the suffering.
Sañjaya narrates the battle’s intensity by portraying it as a river set flowing by the warriors—its ‘foam’ like banners and weapons, its ‘sound’ like the lamentations of the wounded, and its current metaphorically leading to the next world.