Shloka 18
Bhīmasena’s Kalinga Engagement and the Approach of Bhīṣma (भीमसेन-कालिङ्ग-संग्रामः)
गदामुसलरुग्णानां भिन्नानां च वरासिभि: | दन्तिदन्तावभिन्नानां मृदितानां च दन्तिभि:
sañjaya uvāca | gadāmusalarugṇānāṃ bhinnānāṃ ca varāsibhiḥ | dantidantāvabhinnānāṃ mṛditānāṃ ca dantibhiḥ ||
三阇耶说：在那战场上，许多人被钉锤与棍棒击得肢体粉碎；许多人被上等利剑斩裂成段；许多人被战象的獠牙撕开胸腹；又有许多人被战象的重躯踏压碾碎。于是无数战士成群结队，半死不活，彼此呼号。噢，婆罗多啊，他们那可怖的哀号，听来宛如鬼灵喧嚣。
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds the concrete suffering produced by warfare—maiming, dismemberment, trampling—thereby sharpening the ethical tension in the epic: even when war is framed as dharma for kṣatriyas, its reality is mass anguish, demanding sober moral reflection rather than triumphalism.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra the scene on the battlefield: warriors are broken by maces and clubs, cut down by swords, ripped by elephants’ tusks, and crushed under elephants, while the half-dead cry out in terrifying lamentation.