अपतत् कुञ्जराद् अन्यो हयाद् अन्यस् त्व् अवाक्शिराः ॥
नरो बाणेन निर्भिन्नो रथाद् अन्यश् च मारिष ॥
तत्रान्यस्य च संमर्दे पतितस्य विवर्मणः ॥
शिरः प्रध्वंसयाम् आस वक्षस्य् आक्रम्य कुञ्जरः ॥
अपरे ऽप्य् अपराञ् जघ्नुर् वारणाः पतितान् नरान् ॥
विषाणैश् चावनिं गत्वा व्यभिन्दन् रथिनो बहून् ॥
नरान्त्रैः के चिद् अपरे विषाणालग्नसंस्रवैः ॥
बभ्रमुः शतशो नागा मृद्नन्तः शतशो नरान् ॥
apatat kuñjarād anyo hayād anyas tv avākśirāḥ ||
naro bāṇena nirbhinno rathād anyaś ca māriṣa ||
tatrānyasya ca saṃmarde patitasya vivarmaṇaḥ ||
śiraḥ pradhvaṃsayām āsa vakṣasy ākramya kuñjaraḥ ||
apare 'py aparāñ jaghnur vāraṇāḥ patitān narān ||
viṣāṇaiś cāvaniṃ gatvā vyabhindan rathino bahūn ||
narāntraiḥ ke cid apare viṣāṇālagnasaṃsravaiḥ ||
babhramuḥ śataśo nāgā mṛdnantaḥ śataśo narān ||
One toppled from an elephant, another from a horse, another still — a man pierced by an arrow — fell head downward from a chariot, O worthy one. There, upon another who had fallen in the melee, stripped of his armor, an elephant crushed the head, having stepped upon the chest. Other elephants killed still other fallen men, and, driving their tusks into the ground, gored many chariot warriors. Yet other elephants, with human entrails and viscera stuck to their tusks, roamed by the hundreds, trampling hundreds of men.
a8596f6d6324 · publicado 19 jul 2026, 15:22:09 UTC
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The tradition does not look away from the most terrible flesh of war: crushed heads, tusks smeared with the entrails of the fallen, elephants roaming with viscera on their tusks. In this unadorned pitilessness there is no relish but a sober witness to the true face of war, stripped of all glamour. It is telling that the tradition lingers precisely on these details, allowing no seduction by glory. The verse teaches that war is not a splendid spectacle but the destruction of living flesh in its full horror; that one who perceives its true face will not desire it beyond necessity; and that the tradition, by showing entrails on tusks and crushed heads, exposes every romance of war, leaving only the sorrowful truth of the price bodies pay for the enmity of minds.