Mahabharata 7.110.34 — Drona Parva, Adhyaya 110, Shloka 34
Adhyāya 110: Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s Lament on Fate; Saṃjaya’s Reproof and the Princes’ Assault on Bhīma (द्रोणपर्व, अध्याय ११०)
शोणितोदां रथावर्ता हस्तिग्राहसमाकुलाम् । छत्रहंसां कर्दमिनीं बाहुपन्नगसंकुलाम्
śoṇitodāṁ rathāvartā hastigrāhasamākulām | chatrahaṁsāṁ kardaminīṁ bāhupannagasaṅkulām ||
सञ्जय उवाच—शोणितोदां रथावर्तां हस्तिग्राहसमाकुलाम्। छत्रहंसां कर्दमिनीं बाहुपन्नगसंकुलाम्॥
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses stark metaphor to show how war overwhelms human judgment: once violence becomes a ‘current,’ it sweeps away communities indiscriminately. The ethical warning is that adharma in conflict turns the world into a nightmare landscape where life, dignity, and restraint are lost.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that the fighting has become so intense that the battlefield resembles a blood-river: chariots form eddies, elephants resemble crocodiles, umbrellas look like swans, mud forms from gore and churned earth, and severed arms lie like serpents, while Cedis, Pāñcālas, and Śṛñjayas are being repeatedly cut down.
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