Shloka 21
Babhruvāhana’s Lament and Appeal for Expiation (प्रायश्चित्त-याचना)
इतो दुःखतरं कि नु यन्मे माता सुखैधिता । भूमौ निपतितं वीरमनुशेते मृतं पतिम्
ito duḥkhataraṃ ki nu yan me mātā sukhaiḍhitā | bhūmau nipatitaṃ vīram anuśete mṛtaṃ patim ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “What sorrow could be greater than this? My mother, who was reared in comfort, now lies on the ground beside her fallen heroic husband, embracing him as one dead—resolved to follow him into death.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds the ethical weight of marital fidelity and the human cost of heroic death: even those raised in comfort can be driven by devotion and grief to extreme vows, highlighting how dharma and personal attachment collide in moments of loss.
The speaker reports a scene of intense mourning: his mother, formerly accustomed to ease, is now on the ground beside her fallen heroic husband, holding him as if dead and expressing a resolve to die with him—presented as the peak of the narrator’s sorrow.