Shloka 6

Janmaveśma-praveśa and Uttarā’s Śaraṇāgati

Entry into the Birth-Chamber and Uttarā’s Appeal

Devanagari script

श्रुत्वाभिमन्योस्तनयं जातं च मृतमेव च । मुषिता इव वार्ष्णेय द्रोणपुत्रेण पाण्डवा:

Transliteration

śrutvābhimanyos tanayaṃ jātaṃ ca mṛtam eva ca | muṣitā iva vārṣṇeya droṇaputreṇa pāṇḍavāḥ ||

Translation

Vaiśampāyana sprach: „Als sie hörten, dass Abhimanyus Sohn geboren worden war und doch sogleich starb, fühlten sich die Pāṇḍavas—o Vārṣṇeya—als wären sie vom Sohn Droṇas um alles beraubt worden. Diese Kunde traf die Hoffnung auf Fortbestand und Zukunft ihres Geschlechts und verwandelte den Sieg in moralische Qual und Trauer.“

Word by Word

• {'śrutvā': 'having heard', 'abhimanyoḥ': 'of Abhimanyu', 'tanayam': 'son

• offspring', 'jātam': 'born', 'ca ... ca': 'and ... and', 'mṛtam': 'dead', 'eva': 'indeed

• only', 'muṣitāḥ': 'robbed

• deprived', 'iva': 'as if', 'vārṣṇeya': 'O descendant of the Vṛṣṇis (epithet of Kṛṣṇa)', 'droṇaputreṇa': 'by Droṇa’s son (Aśvatthāman)', 'pāṇḍavāḥ': 'the Pāṇḍavas'}

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vaiśampāyana
• Abhimanyu
• Abhimanyu’s son (Parīkṣit, implied)
• Vārṣṇeya (Kṛṣṇa)
• Droṇa’s son (Aśvatthāman)
• Pāṇḍavas

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Even after the war ends, adharma can continue to wound society through attacks on the innocent and on lineage. The verse highlights how violence aimed at extinguishing a family’s future is felt as total dispossession, underscoring the ethical gravity of harming the unborn and the helpless.

What is happening in the narrative?

The narrator reports that the Pāṇḍavas hear the shocking news: Abhimanyu’s child was born but died immediately. They feel as if Aśvatthāman (Droṇa’s son) has robbed them of everything, because the child represented the continuation of their line and the last hope after immense wartime loss.