Shloka 28

Devanagari script

पाण्डुपुत्र भीमने काले लोहेका कवच पहने हुए बहुत-से मनुष्यों और अश्वोंको भी गदासे मार गिराया। वे सब-के-सब आर्तनाद करते हुए प्राणशून्य होकर गिर पड़े ।। उन्तैर्दशन्तो वसुधां शेरते क्षतजोक्षिता: । भग्नमूर्धास्थिचरणा: क्रव्यादगणभोजना:,घायल हुए कौरव-सैनिक खूनसे नहाकर दाँतोंसे ओठ चबाते हुए धरतीपर सो गये थे, किन्हींका माथा फट गया था, किन्हींकी हड्डियाँ चूर-चूर हो गयी थीं और किन्हींके पाँव उखड़ गये थे। वे सब-के-सब मांसभक्षी पशुओंके भोजन बन गये थे

Transliteration

utkṣatadantā vasudhāṁ śerate kṣatajo'kṣitāḥ | bhagnamūrdhāsthi-caraṇāḥ kravyādagaṇa-bhojanāḥ ||

Translation

Sañjaya said: The wounded Kaurava soldiers, drenched in blood, lay upon the earth, biting their lips with clenched teeth in agony. Some had their skulls split, some had their bones shattered, and some had their feet torn away. All of them became food for packs of flesh-eating creatures—an unsparing picture of war’s cruelty and the moral cost of violence.

Word by Word

उन्तैःwith (their) teeth

दशन्तःbiting/gnashing

वसुधाम्the earth/ground

शेरतेlie down

क्षतज-उक्षिताःsprinkled/soaked with blood

भग्न-मूर्ध-अस्थि-चरणाःwhose heads/bones/feet are broken

क्रव्याद-गण-भोजनाःfood for groups of flesh-eaters

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

Sañjaya

Kaurava soldiers

Vasudhā (earth/ground)

Kravyāda-gaṇa (packs of flesh-eaters)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Cross References

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores the grim reality of war: bodily destruction, helpless suffering, and the reduction of human life to carrion. Ethically, it functions as a warning against glorifying violence, even when framed within kṣatriya-dharma; the narrative insists that the cost of adharma-driven conflict is dehumanizing devastation.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya describes the battlefield aftermath: Kaurava troops lie fallen and mutilated, soaked in blood and writhing in pain before death. Their bodies become prey for carnivorous animals and birds, emphasizing the scale of slaughter in the Karṇa Parva fighting.