Shloka 3
तं शुगालाश्व कड्काश्ष क्रव्यादाश्न पृथग्विधा: । तेन तेन विकर्षन्ति पश्य कालस्य पर्ययम्,उसे सियार, कंक और नाना प्रकारके मांसभक्षी जीव-जन्तु इधर-उधर खींच रहे हैं। यह समयका उलट-फेर तो देखो
taṁ śṛgālāśva-kaṅkāś ca kravyādāś ca pṛthagvidhāḥ | tena tena vikarṣanti paśya kālasya paryayam ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “Various flesh-eating creatures—jackals, hyenas, vultures, and others—are dragging that body this way and that. Behold how time has turned upside down.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the stark reversal brought by Kāla (Time): those once honored in life are reduced to helpless bodies on a battlefield, subject to scavengers. It highlights impermanence and the moral gravity of war’s consequences.
In the aftermath of the Kurukṣetra slaughter, the scene is described with grim realism: carrion-eaters drag bodies in different directions, and the speaker points to this as a shocking ‘turn of time’—a sign of the world overturned by war.