Shloka 126
Daiva–Puruṣakāra Discourse and the Elephant-Corps Engagement (भीमगजानीक-सम्भ्रान्ति)
महीं चक्रुश्चितां सर्वां शशलोहितसंनि भाम् । राजन्! उस समय सब योद्धाओंने छिन्न-भिन्न होकर परस्पर एक-दूसरेको खींचते हुए वहाँकी सारी भूमिको अपनी रक्तरंजित लाशोंसे पाट दिया। वह भूमि खरगोशके रक्तकी भाँति लाल दिखायी देने लगी
sañjaya uvāca |
mahīṁ cakruś citāṁ sarvāṁ śaśalohitasaṁnibhām |
Sañjaya said: “O King, in that moment the warriors, shattered and dismembered, dragged one another in mutual struggle and covered the entire ground with their blood-soaked bodies. The earth appeared red, like the blood of a hare.” Ethically, the verse underscores the dehumanizing momentum of battle: even as life ebbs away, hostility persists, and the battlefield becomes a stark testimony to the cost of adharma-driven conflict and unchecked wrath.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse functions as a moral mirror: war, once unleashed, reduces the living and the dying alike to instruments of hatred, turning the very earth into a ‘pyre.’ It highlights the ethical cost of adharma—how rage and rivalry erase compassion and leave only suffering and ruin.
Sañjaya reports to the king that the battle has become so brutal that fallen and mutilated warriors still grapple and drag one another; the ground is covered with bloodied bodies, and the battlefield appears intensely red—likened to the redness of a hare’s blood.