Shloka 36

भीष्मरथाभिमुख्यं — Arjuna’s advance with Śikhaṇḍin; Duḥśāsana’s interception

Devanagari script

पताकाध्वजवृक्षाद्या मर्त्यकूलापहारिणी । क्रव्यादहंससंकीर्णा यमराष्ट्रविवर्धनी

Transliteration

sañjaya uvāca |

patākādhvajavṛkṣādyā martyakūlāpahāriṇī |

kravyādahaṃsasaṃkīrṇā yamarāṣṭravivardhinī ||

Translation

三阇耶说道：“那里的旗帜与旌幡，宛如岸边成行的树木。激流卷走成堆的人尸，以奔涌之势将其冲碎。食肉之鸟簇拥其旁，竟如群鹅。那条河只是在扩张阎摩之国——以战争的收成为死亡添食。”

Word by Word

• {'patākā': 'banner, flag', 'dhvaja': 'standard, ensign', 'vṛkṣa': 'tree', 'ādyā': 'and the like

• beginning with', 'martya': 'mortal, human', 'kūla': 'bank, shore', 'apahāriṇī': 'carrying away, sweeping off', 'kravyāda': 'flesh-eating (bird/beast)

• carrion-eater', 'haṃsa': 'swan (also a poetic image for purity/serenity)', 'saṃkīrṇā': 'crowded, filled, thronged', 'yama': 'Yama, lord of death', 'rāṣṭra': 'realm, kingdom, domain', 'vivardhinī': 'increasing, augmenting'}

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sañjaya
• patākā (banners)
• dhvaja (standards)
• vṛkṣa (trees)
• kravyāda (carrion-eating birds)
• haṃsa (swans, as simile)
• Yama
• Yama-rāṣṭra (realm of Yama)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores the moral cost of war: the battlefield becomes a landscape where symbols of glory (flags and standards) are reimagined as lifeless scenery, while death (Yama’s realm) expands. It invites reflection on impermanence and the ethical weight of violence even within the frame of kṣatriya-duty.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya narrates to Dhṛtarāṣṭra a gruesome scene from the Kurukṣetra war: a torrent-like ‘river’ of slaughter where banners resemble riverside trees, corpses are swept along like debris, and carrion birds gather densely—an image that signals massive casualties and the dominance of death.