उत्तमाङ्गोपलतलां निस्त्रिंशझषसेविताम् ॥
रथनागह्रदोपेतां नानाभरणनीरजाम् ॥
महारथशतावर्तां भूमिरेणूर्मिमालिनीम् ॥
महावीर्यवतां संख्ये सुतरां भीरुदुस्तराम् ॥
शूरव्यालसमाकीर्णां प्राणिवाणिजसेविताम् ॥
छिन्नच्छत्रमहाहंसां मुकुटाण्डजसंकुलाम् ॥
चक्रकूर्मां गदानक्रां शरक्षुद्रझषाकुलाम् ॥
बडगृध्रसृगालानां घोरसंघैर् निषेविताम् ॥
निहतान् प्राणिनः संख्ये द्रोणेन बलिना शरैः ॥
वहन्तीं पितृलोकाय शतशो राजसत्तम ॥
शरीरशतसंबाधां केशशैवलशाद्वलाम् ॥
नदीं प्रावर्तयद् राजन् भीरूणां भयवर्धिनीम् ॥
uttamāṅgopalatalāṃ nistriṃśajhaṣasevitām ||
rathanāgahradopetāṃ nānābharaṇanīrajām ||
mahārathaśatāvartāṃ bhūmireṇūrmimālinīm ||
mahāvīryavatāṃ saṃkhye sutarāṃ bhīrudustarām ||
śūravyālasamākīrṇāṃ prāṇivāṇijasevitām ||
chinnacchatramahāhaṃsāṃ mukuṭāṇḍajasaṃkulām ||
cakrakūrmāṃ gadānakrāṃ śarakṣudrajhaṣākulām ||
baḍagṛdhrasṛgālānāṃ ghorasaṃghair niṣevitām ||
nihatān prāṇinaḥ saṃkhye droṇena balinā śaraiḥ ||
vahantīṃ pitṛlokāya śataśo rājasattama ||
śarīraśatasaṃbādhāṃ keśaśaivalaśādvalām ||
nadīṃ prāvartayad rājan bhīrūṇāṃ bhayavardhinīm ||
[That river,] whose boulders on its bed were heads, swarming with sword-fish; with backwaters of chariots and elephants, with lotuses of manifold ornaments; with eddies of hundreds of great chariots, crowned with a ridge of waves of earthly dust; easily fordable for mighty heroes in battle, yet impassable for cowards; full of warriors like fierce serpents, [that river] where life itself was traded; with swans of severed parasols, swarming with birds made of crowns; with tortoises of chariot-wheels, crocodiles of maces, swarming with minnow-arrows; haunted by fearsome hordes of herons, vultures, and jackals; carrying by hundreds to the world of the fathers the beings slain in battle by mighty Drona, O best of kings; hemmed in by hundreds of corpses, with silt and turf of hair — this river he set flowing, O king, augmenting terror among the faint-hearted.
e1f5225540c5 · published Jul 19, 2026, 3:00:03 PM UTC
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The elaborate metaphor closes with two profound images: the river is "easy for the brave, impassable for cowards" — for one and the same trial is a path for some and death for others; and it is "where life itself is traded" — in war, life becomes a mere currency changing hands, and in this lies its boundless devaluation. The river carries the fallen "to the world of the fathers": death in battle, for a kshatriya, is not an end but a crossing. The verse teaches that one and the same calamity is passable for the courageous and ruinous for the timid — the outcome depends on the spirit within; that war reduces life to a coin to be spent; and that even in the river of death there is a crossing — for those who fall with honor it leads to the worlds of the ancestors, not into oblivion.