एवम् एष महारौद्रः क्षयार्थं सर्वधन्विनाम् ॥
तावकानां परेषां च त्यक्त्वा प्राणान् अभूद् रणः ॥
पदातिरथनागाश्वैर् गजाश्वरथपत्तयः ॥
रथिनो नागपत्त्यश्वै रथपत्ती रथद्विपैः ॥
अश्वैर् अश्वा गजैर् नागा रथिनो रथिभिः सह ॥
संसक्ताः समदृश्यन्त पत्तयश् चापि पत्तिभिः ॥
एवं सुकलिलं युद्धम् आसीत् क्रव्यादहर्षणम् ॥
महद्भिस् तैर् अभीतानां यमराष्ट्रविवर्धनम् ॥
evam eṣa mahāraudraḥ kṣayārthaṃ sarvadhanvinām ||
tāvakānāṃ pareṣāṃ ca tyaktvā prāṇān abhūd raṇaḥ ||
padātirathanāgāśvair gajāśvarathapattayaḥ ||
rathino nāgapattyaśvai rathapattī rathadvipaiḥ ||
aśvair aśvā gajair nāgā rathino rathibhiḥ saha ||
saṃsaktāḥ samadṛśyanta pattayaś cāpi pattibhiḥ ||
evaṃ sukalilaṃ yuddham āsīt kravyādaharṣaṇam ||
mahadbhis tair abhītānāṃ yamarāṣṭravivardhanam ||
Thus this most terrible battle, meant to annihilate all the bowmen — yours and the enemy's alike — went on, as they cast off their very lives. Foot-soldiers, chariots, elephants, and horses fought elephants, horses, chariots, and foot-soldiers; the charioted fought elephants, foot-soldiers, and horses; the charioted and foot fought chariots and elephants; horses locked with horses, elephants with elephants, and the charioted with the charioted, all in plain sight, and foot-soldiers with foot-soldiers. Thus the battle became a tight, tangled melee, gladdening the carrion-eaters, swelling the kingdom of Yama with those great, undaunted men.
a99be4c490e1 · published Jul 19, 2026, 3:22:09 PM UTC
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The battle is called 'swelling the kingdom of Yama' and 'gladdening the carrion-eaters' — behind the valor of the fighters, the true fruit of the slaughter shows through: a feast for death and vultures. The long enumeration of how every kind of troop clashed with every other paints a picture of total confusion, in which all perish without distinction. It is telling that the 'undaunted' and the 'great' only enlarge the kingdom of death. The verse teaches that the greatest valor, turned to mutual destruction, in the end serves only Yama and the vulture; that war, however celebrated its participants, is an increase of death, not of life; and that one who sees, behind the glitter of 'great undaunted men,' this true outcome — a feast for scavengers and a swollen kingdom of Yama — will not be seduced by martial glory, seeing what it truly serves.