Shloka 18
Bhīmasena’s Kalinga Engagement and the Approach of Bhīṣma (भीमसेन-कालिङ्ग-संग्रामः)
गदामुसलरुग्णानां भिन्नानां च वरासिभि: | दन्तिदन्तावभिन्नानां मृदितानां च दन्तिभि:
sañjaya uvāca | gadāmusalarugṇānāṃ bhinnānāṃ ca varāsibhiḥ | dantidantāvabhinnānāṃ mṛditānāṃ ca dantibhiḥ ||
サンジャヤは言った。「その戦場では、棍棒や槌の一撃で多くの者が手足を砕かれ、また多くの者が上等の剣により切り裂かれて散り、さらに多くの者が戦象の牙に裂かれ、また多くの者が象の重みに踏み潰された。かくして数知れぬ戦士の群れは半死半生となり、互いに呼び叫んだ。おおバーラタよ、その凄惨な呻き声は、まるで亡霊どもの喧噪のように耳に届いた。」
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds the concrete suffering produced by warfare—maiming, dismemberment, trampling—thereby sharpening the ethical tension in the epic: even when war is framed as dharma for kṣatriyas, its reality is mass anguish, demanding sober moral reflection rather than triumphalism.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra the scene on the battlefield: warriors are broken by maces and clubs, cut down by swords, ripped by elephants’ tusks, and crushed under elephants, while the half-dead cry out in terrifying lamentation.