Shloka 43

Devanagari script

ताञ्छरौघान्‌ महावर्तान्‌ शोणितोदान्‌ महाह्ददान्‌

Transliteration

tāñ charaughān mahāvartān śoṇitodān mahāhradān

Translation

Sañjaya said: “Those torrents of arrows—whirling like mighty eddies—became like great lakes whose waters were blood.”

Word by Word

• तान्: those
• तान्: Karma
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: तद्
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Plural

• शरौघान्: masses/streams of arrows
• शरौघान्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: शर-ओघ
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Plural

• महावर्तान्: having great whirlpools/eddies
• महावर्तान्: Karma
• Type: Adjective
• Root: महावर्त
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Plural

• शोणितोदान्: whose water is blood / blood-watered
• शोणितोदान्: Karma
• Type: Adjective
• Root: शोणित-उद
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Plural

• महाह्रदान्: great lakes/pools
• महाह्रदान्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: महाह्रद
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Plural

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sañjaya
• arrows
• blood
• lakes/deep pools

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores the catastrophic moral cost of war: martial prowess manifests as overwhelming violence, and the battlefield is poetically recast as a landscape of blood—inviting reflection on the human suffering that accompanies adharma-driven conflict.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya describes the battle’s intensity through a metaphor: volleys of arrows surge like swirling currents, and the resulting carnage makes the scene resemble vast lakes filled with blood.