Shloka 353
Yuddha-yajña-vyākhyāna (The Battle as Sacrifice): Ambarīṣa–Indra Saṃvāda
नदी योधस्य संग्रामे तदस्याव भृथं स्मृतम् । जिस योद्धाके युद्धरूपी यज्ञमें रक्तकी नदी प्रवाहित होती है
nadī yodhasya saṅgrāme tad asyāva bhṛthaṃ smṛtam |
安婆利沙说道：对武士而言，战场上奔流的那条河——由鲜血汇成——被视为他的“阿婆毗利他沐浴”（avabhṛtha），即祭祀终了的净浴。凡已步入“战争之祭”（战瑜伽、战祭）者，那可怖的急流虽骇人且难以渡越，却成了仪式的圆满：血为其水，战鼓喧响如其水中生灵，白骨为其砾石沙粒，而兵刃则为渡河之具。此一譬喻将厮杀置于庄严而具道德分量的礼制之中：勇气、决断与对险厄的承受，被看作武士献祭的完成，而非仅仅暴力。
अम्बरीष उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses Vedic ritual language to interpret a warrior’s battle as a solemn, duty-bound rite: the terrifying blood-river of combat is likened to the avabhṛtha bath that completes a sacrifice, suggesting that for a kṣatriya acting within dharma, endurance and courage in battle carry a ritual-ethical significance rather than being mere brutality.
Ambarīṣa is speaking and introduces a metaphor: in the ‘war-sacrifice,’ the battlefield becomes a river of blood, and for the warrior that river is treated as the concluding sacrificial bath (avabhṛtha). The surrounding prose elaborates the metaphor with vivid battlefield details (blood, bones, weapons, drums), emphasizing the dreadfulness and difficulty of ‘crossing’ it.