Dhauli by Jayanta Mahapatra Analysis

Afterwards when the wars of Kalinga were over,
the fallow fields of Dhauli
hid the blood-spilt butchered bodies. [originally 'red-smeared voiceless bodies']

As the earth
burrowed into their dead hunger
with its merciless worms,    [was 'tortured worms']
guided the foxes to their limp genitals.

Years later, the evening wind,
trembling the glazed waters of the River Daya,
keens in the rock edicts the vain word,
like the voiceless cicadas of night: [was 'shuttered silence, an air:']

the measure of Ashoka's suffering
does not appear enough.
The place of his pain peers lamentably
from among the pains of the dead.

Analysis

The poem Dhauli is what Odisha poet Jayanta Mahapatra makes of the aftermath of Kalinga war (war between the Maurya Empire led by Ashoka and the Kalinga Kingdom, that is to say present-day Odisha state) where Ashoka repented perpetrating deadly gruesome attacks on the people of Kalinga and exterminating many in the order of ten thousand, which included both kalinga people and kalinga soldiers during the annexation of Kalinga by the Mauryas.

1st stanza

The time post war of Kalinga sees massive bloodletting at the hands of Ashoka and his subordinates. The ploughed and harrowed, almost arable fields  (beside the River Daya, in Dhauli) hide the blood smeared, slaughtered bodies of Kalinga natives. Blood lines mark the regions where the bodies were slit. It makes for a ghastly scene. These bodies are referred to as ‘red-smeared voiceless bodies’.

2nd stanza

In the second stanza, the dead bodies of Kalinga natives laying beside the River Dhauli start to decay. Earth is personified and is said to be digging into the raw flesh of the dead bodies due to decomposition, making it open to earthworms and foxes. The earthworms devour the dead along with the foxes. They are said to be 'tortured' since the great multitude of bodies makes them feel overwhelmed as eating away all the bodies would take a lot of time and effort. The foxes which generally feed on small weak animals like poultry, rabbits now feed on the genitals of dead defenseless and impotent humans to satiate their hunger. ‘Hunger’ here is personified. 

3rd stanza

After several years, the sweeping evening wind touches and trembles River Daya where thousands and thousands of Kalinga people were killed. It smashes against the edicts on rocks of Dhauli (it is where Ashoka expressed his remorse over killing so many people and added that he converted to Buddhism in order to better himself) making loud lament-like sounds(keens in the rock edict). The lamentation of the winds are of those who were massacred. The lamenting sounds seem to be imprisoned, as they make a dull, aching effect, unlike loud clear wailing. The lamenting is similar to the ‘voiceless cicadas’ of night. Cicadas are bugs that live in self made small tree tunnels or even underground. 

4th stanza

The poet finds the pain expressed by Ashoka over his ‘folly’ of massacring many Kalinga people very unconvincing, considering the sheer number of lives that he has ended. The poet beautifully expresses how miniscule his grief seems by writing that his pain is so little relative to the pain suffered by Kalinga people that ‘the place of his pain peers lamentably
from among the pains of the dead’. It means that among the zillions of pains the pain of Ashoka is but very insignifant. The pain inflicted by him on Kalinga people crowd the Kalinga Kingdom with his pain only being able to find a small space where it peers lamentably.