Mahabharata 7.201.3 — Drona Parva, Adhyaya 201, Shloka 3

Devanagari script

क्रव्यादपक्षिसंघुष्ट भूतयक्षगणाकुलम्‌ । निहत्य शात्रवान्‌ भल्लै: सोडचिनोदू देहपर्वतम्‌

Transliteration

sañjaya uvāca | kravyādapakṣi-saṅghuṣṭaṃ bhūta-yakṣa-gaṇākulam | nihatya śātravān bhallaiḥ so 'cino(d) deha-parvatam ||

Translation

తీక్ష్ణ భల్లాలతో శత్రువీరులను సంహరించి అతడు దేహాల పర్వతంలాంటి కుప్పను నిర్మించాడు. ఆ భయంకర గుట్ట మాంసభక్షి పక్షుల కేకలతో మార్మోగి, భూతయక్ష గణాలతో నిండినట్టుగా కనిపించింది।

Word by Word

• क्रव्यादपक्षिसंघुष्टम्: resounding with flesh-eating birds
• क्रव्यादपक्षिसंघुष्टम्: Karma
• Type: Adjective
• Root: क्रव्यादपक्षि-संघुष्ट
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

• भूतयक्षगणाकुलम्: crowded with hosts of bhūtas and yakṣas
• भूतयक्षगणाकुलम्: Karma
• Type: Adjective
• Root: भूत-यक्ष-गण-आकुल
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

• निहत्य: having slain
• Type: Verb
• Root: नि-हन्
• Form: Absolutive (Gerund)

• शात्रवान्: enemies
• शात्रवान्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: शात्रव
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Plural

• भल्लैः: with arrows (bhallas)
• भल्लैः: Karana
• Type: Noun
• Root: भल्ल
• Form: Masculine, Instrumental, Plural

• देहपर्वतम्: a mountain of bodies
• देहपर्वतम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: देह-पर्वत
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sanjaya
• enemy warriors (śātravāḥ)
• bhūtas
• yakṣas
• bhalla (arrows)
• deha-parvata (mountain of corpses)
• flesh-eating birds

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores the dehumanizing horror of war: victory is shown not as glory but as a landscape of death, where the battlefield becomes a haunt of carrion-birds and ominous beings—an ethical warning about the cost of violence.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sanjaya describes a warrior (implied from context) slaughtering enemy troops with arrows and piling their bodies into a mound likened to a mountain, surrounded by scavenging birds and imagined as frequented by bhūtas and yakṣas.