Shloka 44
अश्रमवासिनां विषादः — Lament in Hastināpura after the Elders’ Forest Withdrawal
यस्यास्तु श्वशुरो धीमान् बाह्विक: स कुरूद्गवह: । निहतः सोमदत्तश्न पित्रा सह महारणे
yasyāstu śvaśuro dhīmān bāhvikaḥ sa kurūdgavaḥ | nihataḥ somadattaś ca pitrā saha mahāraṇe ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “Her wise father-in-law, Bāhlika—the foremost among the Kurus—has been slain. And Somadatta too, together with his father, met death in that great battle.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the sweeping, lineage-wide cost of war: even revered elders and protectors fall, intensifying the moral weight of violence and the inevitability of loss that follows conflict.
Vaiśampāyana recounts the deaths of Kuru elders—Bāhlika and Somadatta (with his father)—as part of the great war, explaining the depth of bereavement surrounding the surviving family members.