Shloka 20
कर्णपर्व — अध्याय ५७
Arjuna’s targeted advance; Śalya–Karṇa dialogue; interception attempts
परिघैरायसैघोरैरय:कुन्तै: परश्वथै: । शरीरैर्बहुभिश्छिन्ने: शोणितौघपरिप्लुतै:
parighair āyasai ghorair ayaḥ-kuntaiḥ paraśvathaiḥ | śarīrair bahubhiś chinnaiḥ śoṇitaugha-pariplutaiḥ ||
Sañjaya said: The battlefield was strewn with dreadful iron clubs, iron-tipped spears, and axes; and with many severed bodies, all flooded and soaked in torrents of blood—an image of war’s brutal cost and the collapse of bodily life amid the clash of arms.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the grim reality of war: weapons and severed bodies drenched in blood. Ethically, it functions as a stark reminder of the human cost of conflict, tempering heroic rhetoric with the truth of suffering and impermanence.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra the scene on the battlefield: fearsome iron weapons lie about, and many bodies have been cut down, the ground inundated with streams of blood—depicting the intensity and devastation of the fighting in the Karṇa Parva.