Shloka 12
धृतराष्ट्रस्य क्षमायाचनं तथा युधिष्ठिरे न्यासदानम् / Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s Request for Forgiveness and the Entrustment to Yudhiṣṭhira
तन्निर्याणे दु:खित: पौरवर्गो गजाह्वये चैव बभूव राजन् | यथा पूर्व गच्छतां पाण्डवानां द्यूते राजन् कौरवाणां सभाया:
tanniryāṇe duḥkhitaḥ pauravargo gajāhvaye caiva babhūva rājan | yathā pūrva gacchatāṃ pāṇḍavānāṃ dyūte rājan kauravāṇāṃ sabhāyāḥ ||
বৈশম্পায়নে ক’লে—হে ৰাজন! তেওঁ প্ৰস্থান কৰোঁতে গজাহ্বয় (হস্তিনাপুৰ) নগৰৰ সমগ্ৰ পৌৰসমাজ দুখত নিমজ্জিত হ’ল। যেনেকৈ আগতে দ্যূতক্ৰীড়াৰ পাছত কৌৰৱসভার পৰা ওলাই পাণ্ডৱসকল বনবাসলৈ যাত্ৰা কৰোঁতে নগৰবাসী শোকত আচ্ছন্ন হৈছিল, তেনেকৈ ধৃতৰাষ্ট্ৰৰ বিদায়তো সকলো পুৰবাসী বিলাপত দগ্ধ হ’ল।
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights that a kingdom’s moral crises and reversals—especially those rooted in wrongdoing like the dice-game—leave lasting wounds not only on rulers and heroes but also on ordinary citizens. Collective grief becomes a social echo of ethical failure and impermanence in political fortune.
As Dhṛtarāṣṭra departs (for the forest life described in the Āśramavāsika narrative), the people of Hastināpura mourn intensely. The narrator compares this scene to the earlier moment when the Pāṇḍavas left the Kaurava assembly after the dice-game to begin exile, when the city likewise sank into sorrow.