Shloka 466
अश्रमवासिनां विषादः — Lament in Hastināpura after the Elders’ Forest Withdrawal
तेनारम्भेण महता मामुपास्ते महामुने । “आपके पुत्र
tenārambheṇa mahatā māmupāste mahāmune |
Vaiśampāyana said: “O great sage, by that great undertaking he continues to honor and attend upon me. ‘These illustrious kings—my sons—who never turned their backs in battle and were supremely wise: their hundred wives sit here, for their hundred sons were slain on the field of war. These daughters-in-law of mine, enduring the blows of grief and sorrow, repeatedly intensify both my mourning and the king’s. O great sage, all of them, weeping under the mighty surge of lamentation, sit surrounding me alone.’”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage highlights the ethical weight of war’s aftermath: even ‘valorous’ and ‘wise’ warriors leave behind a community of suffering. It underscores compassion and responsibility toward those who bear the consequences—especially widows and elders—showing that dharma includes care for the grieving, not only heroism in battle.
The narrator reports a scene in which the bereaved women—wives of the slain sons—sit around the elder (the speaker’s ‘me’ in the quoted speech), crying intensely. Their mourning repeatedly deepens the sorrow of both the elder and the king, emphasizing the continuing trauma after the Kurukṣetra war.