कांस्यायसतनुत्राणान् नराश्वरथकुञ्जरान् ॥
पतितान् पोथयां चक्रुर् द्विपाः स्थूलनडान् इव ॥
गृध्रपत्राधिवासांसि शयनानि नराधिपाः ॥
ह्रीमन्तः कालसंपक्वाः सुदुःखान्य् अधिशेरते ॥
हन्ति स्मात्र पिता पुत्रं रथेनाभ्यतिवर्तते ॥
पुत्रश् च पितरं मोहान् निर्मर्यादम् अवर्तत ॥
kāṃsyāyasatanutrāṇān narāśvarathakuñjarān ||
patitān pothayāṃ cakrur dvipāḥ sthūlanaḍān iva ||
gṛdhrapatrādhivāsāṃsi śayanāni narādhipāḥ ||
hrīmantaḥ kālasaṃpakvāḥ suduḥkhāny adhiśerate ||
hanti smātra pitā putraṃ rathenābhyativartate ||
putraś ca pitaraṃ mohān nirmaryādam avartata ||
Elephants pounded the fallen — men, horses, chariots and elephants alike, clad in bronze and iron armor — like so many thick reeds. Lords of men, honor-bound, ripened for death, lie most grievously upon couches of vulture feathers. Here a father charged upon a chariot against his son, and a son against his father, in delusion; without restraint, this was happening.
44695ccb83e4 · publicado 19 jul 2026, 15:22:09 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
Kings lie upon "couches of vulture feathers" — a bitter image: their deathbed is strewn with the feathers of vultures gathered for the feast. And again — "father charges against son, son against father, in delusion": the utmost horror of fratricidal war, where delusion erases even the bonds of blood. It is telling that the fallen are called "honor-bound" — they died without losing honor, though in an unjust cause. The verse teaches that war turns the couch of glory into a feast for vultures; that in its delusion even the distinction between father and son perishes; and that the greatest calamity of a family feud is not the heaps of bodies but that kindred blood rises against kindred blood, for here the very nature of kinship dies, and no valor of the fallen redeems this perversion of nature.