Mahabharata 11.23.4 — Stree Parva, Adhyaya 23, Shloka 4
Gāndhārī’s Battlefield Survey: The Fallen and the Onset of Funeral Rites (शल्य-भगीरथ-भीष्म-द्रोणादि-दर्शनम्)
अहो धिक्पश्य शल्यस्य पूर्णचन्द्रसुदर्शनम् । मुखं पद्मपलाशाक्ष काकैरादष्टमव्रणम्
vaiśampāyana uvāca | aho dhik paśya śalyasya pūrṇacandra-sudarśanam | mukhaṁ padma-palāśākṣa kākair ādaṣṭam avraṇam ||
ヴァイシャンパーヤナは言った。「ああ、なんという恥辱！見よ——満月のように麗しく、蓮の花弁のような眼を持ち、傷ひとつなかったシャリヤの顔が、いまや烏に啄まれ、ところどころ裂かれている。」
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the fragility of worldly glory: even a kingly, ‘moon-like’ beauty is reduced by death to a state that invites scavengers. It intensifies the ethical horror of war by showing its final, degrading aftermath rather than heroic ideals.
In the aftermath of the great battle, the narrator points to Śalya’s fallen body. He laments that Śalya’s once unblemished, handsome face—described with poetic epithets—has been pecked by crows, highlighting the battlefield’s desolation and indignity.
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