Shloka 17
अध्याय ९ — दुर्योधनस्य अन्त्यावस्था, विलापः, तथा सौप्तिक-प्रतिवृत्तम्
Duryodhana’s Final Condition, Lamentation, and the Night’s Report
उपासत द्विजा: पूर्वमर्थहेतोर्यमी श्वरम् उपासते च तं हाद्य क्रव्यादा मांसहेतव:,पहले बहुत-से ब्राह्मण धनकी प्राप्तिके लिये जिन नरेशके पास बैठे रहते थे, उन्हींके समीप आज मांसके लिये मांसाहारी जन्तु बैठे हुए हैं
upāsata dvijāḥ pūrvam arthahator yamīśvaram | upāsate ca taṃ hādya kravyādā māṃsahetavaḥ ||
আগতে ধনলাভৰ বাবে বহু ব্ৰাহ্মণে যি ৰজাৰ ওচৰত উপাসনা কৰি বহি থাকিছিল, আজি সেই একে ঠাইতে মাংসৰ বাবে মাংসভোজী জন্তুবোৰে তেওঁৰ কাষতে বহি আছে।
कृप उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse contrasts two kinds of ‘attendance’ on power—earlier, brahmins seeking wealth and royal favor; now, flesh-eaters seeking meat—highlighting how violence and the collapse of dharma degrade a royal court from a place of patronage and counsel into a site of death and predation.
In the Sauptika Parva’s aftermath of the night massacre, Kṛpa laments the changed condition around the fallen ruler: where learned men once gathered for support and gifts, scavengers and predators now gather, drawn by corpses—an image of the battlefield’s grim reversal of social order.