Shloka 8
Kurukṣetra-anudarśanam — Rāma-hradāḥ and the Question of Kṣatra Continuity (शान्ति पर्व, अध्याय ४८)
अमी रामह्नदा: पज्च दृश्यन्ते पार्थ दूरत: । तेषु संतर्पयामास पितृत् क्षत्रियशोणितै:
vaiśampāyana uvāca |
amī rāma-hradāḥ pañca dṛśyante pārtha dūrataḥ |
teṣu santarpayāmāsa pitṝn kṣatriya-śoṇitaiḥ kuntīnandana ||
قال فايشَمبايانا: «يا بارثا، تلك البحيرات الخمس التي تُرى من بعيد تُعرف باسم راما-هْرَدَات. هناك، يا ابن كونتي، قدّم يومًا طَرْپَنَةً لأسلافه—بدم الكشاتريا.»
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights an ethical tension central to the Mahābhārata: acts of extreme violence can become entangled with ritual and duty. It invites reflection on how dharma, ancestral obligation, and the consequences of warfare intersect—sometimes in disturbing ways—within the epic’s moral landscape.
Vaiśampāyana points out five lakes called Rāma-hradas visible from a distance and states that at these lakes ‘he’ performed tarpaṇa (ancestral libations) for the Pitṛs using the blood of kṣatriyas, linking the location to a remembered, grim episode of ritualized aftermath of battle.