Shloka 48

Chapter 23: Śakuni Reports, Kaurava Advance, and Arjuna’s Penetration of the Host

Devanagari script

रुधिरोक्षितसर्वाड़ा विप्रविद्धैर्नियन्तृभि: । हया: परिपतन्ति सम शतशो5थ सहसत्रश:

Transliteration

rudhirokṣita-sarvāṅgā vipraviddhair niyantṛbhiḥ | hayāḥ paripatanti sma śataśo 'tha sahasraśaḥ ||

Translation

സഞ്ജയൻ പറഞ്ഞു—ശരീരമൊട്ടാകെ രക്തത്തിൽ നനഞ്ഞും, തങ്ങളുടെ നിയന്ത്രകർ (സാരഥികൾ) വെട്ടേറ്റ് ആശയക്കുഴപ്പത്തിലായും, കുതിരകൾ നൂറുകളായി, പിന്നെ ആയിരങ്ങളായി വീണുകൊണ്ടിരുന്നു.

Word by Word

रुधिरोक्षितसर्वाङ्गाःwhose whole bodies are drenched with blood

विप्रविद्धैःpierced, struck through

नियन्तृभिःby the drivers (charioteers/handlers)

हयाःhorses

परिपतन्तिfall down, collapse all around

समम्together, simultaneously

शतशःby hundreds

अथand then / also

सहस्रशःby thousands

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

Sañjaya

horses (hayāḥ)

charioteers/drivers (niyantṛ)

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 catastrophic cost of war: even innocent beings like horses suffer terribly, and when guidance (the charioteer/driver) is destroyed, order collapses into chaos—an ethical reminder of the far-reaching harm of violence.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya describes the battlefield scene where horses, their bodies soaked in blood, fall in great numbers because their charioteers/drivers have been struck down, leaving the teams uncontrolled amid the carnage.