Mahabharata 11.2.17 — Stree Parva, Adhyaya 2, Shloka 17
Strī Parva, Adhyāya 2 — Vidura’s Consolation on Kāla, Karma, and the Limits of Lamentation (विदुरोपदेशः)
शरीराग्निषु शूराणां जुह॒वुस्ते शराहुती: । हूयमानान् शरांश्वैव सेहुस्तेजस्विनो मिथ:
śarīrāgniṣu śūrāṇāṃ juhavus te śarāhutīḥ | hūyamānān śarāṃś caiva sehustejasvino mithaḥ ||
Видура говорит: в самых телах героев — подобно жертвенным огням — они возливали приношения стрел. И те сияющие воины, в свой черёд, выносили стрелы, приносимые в «огонь тела» друг друга. Стих изображает битву как мрачную яджню: мужество становится ритуальной дисциплиной, а стойкость — дорогой жертвой, открывая и доблесть, и страшную нравственную тяжесть войны.
विदुर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses yajña-metaphor to portray warfare: heroes ‘offer’ arrows as oblations into the ‘fires’ of bodies, while the opposing warriors endure those offerings. It highlights disciplined valor and mutual endurance, while also underscoring the grim sacrificial cost of violence.
Vidura describes the mutual exchange of arrows between heroic fighters as if it were a sacrificial rite: each side casts arrows into the other’s ‘body-fire,’ and the radiant warriors withstand the incoming shafts. It is a poetic depiction of intense combat and reciprocal suffering.
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