Shloka 39

Duryodhana-śibira-praveśaḥ — The Pāṇḍavas Enter the Kaurava Camp; The Burning of Arjuna’s Chariot

Devanagari script

वायुदेव उवाच हतस्त्वमसि गान्धारे सभ्रातृसुतबान्धव:

Transliteration

vāyudeva uvāca: hatas tvam asi gāndhāre sabhrātṛ-suta-bāndhavaḥ

Translation

Vāyudeva sprach: „O Gemahl der Gāndhārī, du bist erschlagen—zusammen mit deinen Brüdern, deinen Söhnen und deinen Verwandten.“

Word by Word

वायुदेवःVāyu-deva (the Wind-god)

उवाचsaid

हतःslain, killed

त्वम्you

असिare

गान्धारेO Gāndhāra (Dhṛtarāṣṭra)

सभ्रातृसुतबान्धवःtogether with (your) brothers, sons, and kinsmen

Speaker

वायुदेव उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vāyudeva (Vāyu)

Gāndhāra (as an address to Dhṛtarāṣṭra / Gāndhārī’s lord)

Brothers

Sons

Kinsmen

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights the ethical consequence of adharma in war: wrongdoing and blind attachment can culminate in the annihilation of one’s entire familial network—brothers, sons, and relatives—showing that moral failure often brings collective ruin, not merely personal loss.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vāyudeva addresses ‘Gāndhāra’ (i.e., Dhṛtarāṣṭra, identified through Gāndhārī) and declares him ‘slain’ along with his brothers, sons, and kinsmen—an emphatic pronouncement of the Kuru family’s devastation in the aftermath of the great war.