Shloka 56
आयोधनदर्शनम्
Viewing the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra
बाहुभिश्न सखड्गैश्न शिरोभिश्व सकुण्डलै: । अगम्यकल्पा पृथिवी मांसशोणितकर्दमा,“खड्गयुक्त भुजाओं और कुण्डलोंसहित मस्तकोंसे ढँकी हुई इस पृथ्वीपर चलना- फिरना असम्भव हो गया है। यहाँ मांस और रक्तकी कीच जम गयी है
bāhubhiś ca khaḍgaiś ca śirobhiś ca sakuṇḍalaiḥ | agamyakalpā pṛthivī māṃsaśoṇitakardamā ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “With arms still bearing swords and with severed heads adorned with earrings strewn everywhere, the earth has become impossible to traverse. It is churned into a mire of flesh and blood.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse starkly depicts the moral and human cost of war: violence reduces the world to an unlivable wasteland, reminding the listener that adharma-driven conflict culminates in suffering, revulsion, and grief rather than true victory.
In Strī Parva’s lamentation context, the narrator describes the Kurukṣetra battlefield after the slaughter: severed limbs and heads lie scattered, and the ground is so soaked with flesh and blood that movement itself becomes difficult—setting the stage for the women’s mourning and condemnation of the war’s devastation.