Shloka 29
प्रहस्तवधः
The Slaying of Prahasta
हतवीरौघवस्रांतुभग्नायुधमहाद्रुमाम् ।।।।शोणितौघमहातोयांयमसागरगामिनीम् ।यकृत् प्लीहमहापङ्कान्वििकीर्णान्त्रशैवलाम् ।।।।भिन्नकायशिरोमीनामङ्गावयवशाद्वलाम् ।गृध्रहंसगणाकीर्णांकङ्कसारससेविताम् ।।।।मेदःफेनसमाकीर्णामार्तस्न्तितस्वनाम् ।तांकापुरषुदुस्तारांयुद्धभूमिमयींनदीम् ।।।।नदीमिवघनापायेहंससारससेविताम् ।राक्षसाःकपिमुख्याश्चतेरुस्तांदुस्तरांनदीम् ।।।।यथापद्मरजोध्वस्तांनळिनींगजयूथपाः ।
hata-vīra-ogha-vasrāṃ tu bhagnāyudha-mahādrumām | śoṇita-ogha-mahā-toyāṃ yama-sāgara-gāminīm || yakṛt-plīha-mahā-paṅkāṃ vikīrṇāntra-śaivalām | bhinna-kāya-śiro-mīnāṃ aṅgāvayava-śādvalām || gṛdhra-haṃsa-gaṇākīrṇāṃ kaṅka-sārasa-sevitām | medaḥ-phena-samākīrṇām ārta-santati-svanām || tāṃ kāpuruṣa-dustārāṃ yuddha-bhūmi-mayīṃ nadīm | nadīm iva ghana-apāye haṃsa-sārasa-sevitām || rākṣasāḥ kapi-mukhyāś ca terus tāṃ dustarāṃ nadīm | yathā padma-rajo-dhvastāṃ naḷinīṃ gaja-yūthapāḥ ||
戦場は川のようになった。その岸辺は倒れた英雄たちの山であり、砕かれた武器はその大木であり、血の奔流はヤマ（死神）の海へと急ぐその広大な水であった。肝臓と脾臓はその泥を形成し、散らばった内臓はその水草、切断された胴体と頭はその魚、手足と体の一部はその草であった。ハゲワシは白鳥のように集まり、死肉を食らう鳥は鶴のように動き、脂肪は泡のように広がり、負傷者の叫び声はそのせせらぎとなった。臆病者には渡るのが難しいその場所は、白鳥や鶴が集うモンスーンの終わりの川のようであった。しかし、羅刹たちと主要な猿たちは、その困難な川を渡った。それはまるで、蓮の花粉にまみれた蓮池を渡る象の群れのリーダーたちのようであった。
Heaps of slain leaders as banks, broken weapons like large trees, torrents of blood as vast stretch of water, liver and spleens as its mire, scattered entrails as duckweeds, severed trunks and heads as fish, fingers and parts of limbs as grass, crowded with swans in the form of vultures, frequented with cranes in the shape of buzzards, overspread with f at in the form of foam, groans of the wounded for its murmur, difficult to cross for cowards, frequented by swans and cranes, that battlefield of river flowed. The Rakshasas and Vanaras swam across the river even though it were difficult to cross as leaders of elephant herds would cross a lotus pond covered with pollen of lotuses.
FAQs
The passage insists on satya about war: even when undertaken for dharma, battle produces horrific suffering; righteous leadership must never forget this cost.
The narrator depicts the battlefield so filled with corpses and gore that it is imagined as a dreadful river, which both sides nevertheless cross and press through.
Dhairya (steadfast endurance) and utsāha (resolve): the foremost fighters continue despite a scene that would break the fearful.