Shloka 24

Devanagari script

क्रव्यादसंघैर्मुदितैस्तिष्ठद्धि: सहितैः क्वचित्‌ । क्वचिदाक्रीडमानैश्न शयानैश्लापरै: क्वचित्‌,“कहीं वीरोंकी भुजाओंसे छोड़ी गयी शक्तियाँ पड़ी हैं, कहीं परिघ, नाना प्रकारके तीखे खड्ग और बाणसहित घनुष गिरे हुए हैं। कहीं झुंड-के-झुंड मांसभक्षी जीव-जन्तु आनन्दमग्न होकर एक साथ खड़े हैं, कहीं वे खेल रहे हैं और कहीं दूसरे-दूसरे जन्तु सोये पड़े हैं। वीर! प्रभो! इस प्रकार इन सबसे भरे हुए युद्धस्थलको देखो। जनार्दन! मैं तो इसे देखकर शोकसे दग्ध हुई जाती हूँ

Transliteration

kravyādasaṅghair muditais tiṣṭhaddhiḥ sahitaiḥ kvacit | kvacid ākrīḍamānaiś ca śayānaiś cāparaiḥ kvacit ||

Translation

Vaiśampāyana said: “In some places, delighted packs of flesh-eating creatures stand together, their mouths gaping; in other places they sport about, and elsewhere other beasts lie asleep. Thus the battlefield is filled with such sights.”

Word by Word

क्रव्याद-संघैःby groups of flesh-eaters

मुदितैःdelighted

तिष्ठद्भिःstanding

सहितैःtogether, accompanied

क्वचित्somewhere

क्वचित्elsewhere

आक्रीडमानैःsporting, playing

नnot

शयानैःlying down, sleeping

अपरैःby others

क्वचित्somewhere

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vaiśampāyana

kravyāda-saṅghāḥ (packs of flesh-eaters/scavengers)

battlefield (implicit)

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 moral and existential cost of war: once human dharma collapses into mass violence, the battlefield becomes a feeding-ground for scavengers, highlighting impermanence, dehumanization, and the inevitability of suffering that follows adharma-driven conflict.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Strīparvan’s lamentation context after the Kurukṣetra war, the narrator describes the battlefield’s grim scene: packs of carnivorous creatures gather, play, and sleep among the remains, emphasizing the desolation that the women (and the audience) are made to witness.