Shloka 29

Karṇa-parva Adhyāya 20 — Yudhiṣṭhira–Duryodhana Encounter and Escalation of Arms

Devanagari script

ततो निजषघ्नुरन्योन्यं पेतुश्वान्योन्यताडिता: । वमन्तो रुधिरं गान्रैविमस्तिष्केक्षणायुधा:

Transliteration

tato nijaṣaghnur anyonyaṁ petuś cānyonya-tāḍitāḥ | vamanto rudhiraṁ gātrair vimastiṣkekṣaṇāyudhāḥ ||

Translation

Sañjaya said: Then, striking down their own comrades and battered by one another, the warriors fell. Vomiting blood, their limbs shattered, their heads and eyes mangled by weapons, they collapsed—an image of battle’s moral ruin, where fury overwhelms discernment and kinship is forgotten amid mutual slaughter.

Word by Word

ततःthen/thereupon

निजघ्नुःthey struck/killed

अन्योन्यम्one another (mutually)

पेतुःthey fell

अन्योन्यताडिताःstruck by one another

वमन्तःvomiting

रुधिरम्blood

गात्रैःwith (their) limbs/bodies

विमस्तिष्केक्षणायुधाःwith brains and eyes as weapons (i.e., their brains and eyes turned into weapons/being flung out)

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

Sañjaya

warriors (combatants)

weapons (āyudha)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores the ethical devastation of war: when rage and rivalry dominate, even one’s own side becomes indistinguishable from the enemy, leading to mutual destruction and the collapse of humane restraint (dharma) amid violence.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya describes a brutal phase of the battle where fighters, striking and being struck by one another, fall in heaps—bleeding, vomiting blood, and grievously mutilated by weapons.