Shloka 37
अध्याय १४८ — कर्णप्रभावः, धृष्टद्युम्नस्य विरथता, तथा घटोत्कच-आह्वानम्
Chapter 148: Karṇa’s Pressure, Dhṛṣṭadyumna Unhorsed, and the Summoning of Ghaṭotkaca
गतासुयोधनिश्लेष्टशरीरशतवाहिनीम् । महाप्रतिभयां रौद्रां घोरां वैतरणीमिव
gatāsu yodhaniśleṣṭaśarīraśatavāhinīm | mahāpratibhayāṁ raudrāṁ ghorāṁ vaitaraṇīm iva
ಆ ರಣಭೂಮಿ ವೈತರಣಿಯಂತೆಯೇ—ಅತ್ಯಂತ ಘೋರ, ರೌದ್ರ ಮತ್ತು ಮಹಾಭಯದಿಂದ ತುಂಬಿದುದಾಗಿತ್ತು; ಅದರ ಪ್ರವಾಹದಲ್ಲಿ ನೂರಾರು ನಿರ್ಜೀವ ದೇಹಗಳು ಪರಸ್ಪರ ಅಂಟಿಕೊಂಡಂತೆ ಹರಿದು ಹೋಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದವು।
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the moral and existential cost of war: when violence overwhelms discernment, the battlefield becomes a hell-like passage, evoking the Vaitaraṇī. The imagery functions as an ethical warning—victory pursued through unchecked slaughter turns the world itself into a realm of dread.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra a terrifying scene from the Kurukṣetra war: the field is so choked with corpses—bodies tangled together in combat—that it resembles a dreadful river-current carrying hundreds of lifeless bodies, compared to the fearsome Vaitaraṇī.