निर्मर्यादं महद् युद्धम् अवर्तत सुदारुणम् ॥
हा तात हा पुत्र सखे क्वासि तिष्ठ क्व धावसि ॥
प्रहराहर जह्य् एनं स्मितक्ष्वेडितगर्जितैः ॥
इत्य् एवम् उच्चरन्त्यः स्म श्रूयन्ते विविधा गिरः ॥
नरस्याश्वस्य नागस्य समसज्जत शोणितम् ॥
उपाशाम्यद् रजो भौमं भीरून् कश्मलम् आविशत् ॥
nirmaryādaṃ mahad yuddham avartata sudāruṇam ||
hā tāta hā putra sakhe kvāsi tiṣṭha kva dhāvasi ||
praharāhara jahy enaṃ smitakṣveḍitagarjitaiḥ ||
ity evam uccarantyaḥ sma śrūyante vividhā giraḥ ||
narasyāśvasya nāgasya samasajjata śoṇitam ||
upāśāmyad rajo bhaumaṃ bhīrūn kaśmalam āviśat ||
Without restraint the great, most dreadful fight went on. "Alas, father! Alas, my son! O friend, where are you? Stay! Where do you flee? Strike! Smite! Kill him!" — thus, mingled with smiles, whoops and roars, various cries rose and were heard. The blood of man, horse and elephant merged together; the earthly dust was laid; faintness was entering the faint-hearted.
bea962e20311 · published Jul 19, 2026, 3:22:09 PM UTC
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In the many voices of battle, the unmixable is mixed together: the cry of grief "alas, my son!" and the war cry "kill him!", weeping and whooping at once. Here the contradictory nature of war shows itself, where in a single moment sound both sorrow and the delight of slaughter. The blood of man, horse and elephant merges into a single stream — in death all distinctions vanish. It is telling that the earthly dust is laid not by rain but by blood. The verse teaches that war joins together what cannot be joined — grief and fury, weeping and frenzy — in a single chaos; that in common destruction all living things are made equal, and the blood of men and animals flows indistinguishably; and that this spectacle brings "faintness to the timid" — a healthy shudder of a heart that has not yet lost its humanity before such a trampling of life.