Shloka 8

Devanagari script

चिन्तयाना विमोक्षं वो नाधिगच्छामि किंचन । छादयिष्यामि वो गात्रै: करिष्ये मरणं सह,मैं तुमलोगोंके छुटकारेका उपाय सोचती हूँ; किंतु कुछ भी समझमें नहीं आता। अच्छा; अपने अंगोंसे तुमलोगोंको ढक लूँगी और तुम्हारे साथ ही मैं भी मर जाऊँगी

Transliteration

cintayantā vimokṣaṃ vo nādhigacchāmi kiṃcana | chādayiṣyāmi vo gātraiḥ kariṣye maraṇaṃ saha ||

Translation

Unablässig denke ich über einen Weg nach, euch zu befreien, doch ich finde gar nichts. Wohlan—ich will euch mit meinen eigenen Gliedern bedecken und mit euch gemeinsam dem Tod begegnen.

Word by Word

चिन्तयानाthinking (I, a woman)

विमोक्षम्release, deliverance

वःof you / for you (pl.)

नnot

अधिगच्छामिI find / I attain

किञ्चनanything (at all)

छादयिष्यामिI will cover

वःyou (pl.)

गात्रैःwith (my) limbs/body

करिष्येI will do / I will undertake

मरणम्death

सहtogether with

Speaker

वैशमग्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vaiśaṃpāyana (narrator/speaker)

unnamed 'you' (plural addressees)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Cross References

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

When no practical means of rescue appears, the speaker’s ethical impulse turns toward protective self-offering: compassion expresses itself as willingness to share the fate of the vulnerable rather than abandon them.

What is happening in the narrative?

A female speaker, unable to discover any method of deliverance for the addressed group, resolves to shield them with her own body and to die along with them—an extreme gesture of protection and solidarity.