Shloka 29
अश्वत्थाम-शापः, परिक्षिद्भविष्यत्, मणि-न्यासः
Aśvatthāman’s Curse, Parikṣit’s Future, and the Mani’s Restitution
“कजरारे नेत्रोंवाली भोली-भाली कृष्णे! जब मधुसूदन श्रीकृष्ण कौरवोंके पास संधि करानेके लिये जा रहे थे, उस समय तुमने इनसे जो बातें कही थीं, उन्हें याद तो करो ।।
vaiśampāyana uvāca | naiva me patayaḥ santi na putrā bhrātaro na ca | na vai tvam iti govinda śamam icchati rājani ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “O Govinda, it is not that I have husbands, nor sons, nor brothers—nor even you,”—thus (she spoke). When the king sought peace and wished to conclude a settlement, the queen, driven by the Kṣatriya code and the sting of humiliation, had earlier addressed Kṛṣṇa with these harsh words, pressing that peace without justice would amount to the erasure of her family and honor. Now she is urged to remember those words and the moral demand they carried: that reconciliation must not become complicity in wrongdoing.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the ethical tension between peace and justice: peace pursued without addressing grave wrongs can feel like a denial of one’s own kin and dignity. It underscores accountability—remembering one’s prior moral stance and the duty (especially in a Kṣatriya context) to resist a settlement that legitimizes injustice.
In the Sauptika Parva context, the narration recalls Draupadī’s earlier rebuke to Kṛṣṇa when he went as an envoy for peace. As Yudhiṣṭhira inclined toward reconciliation, she spoke sharply—“I have no husbands, sons, brothers, nor even you”—to press that accepting peace after humiliation and violence would betray their cause. The speaker urges that those words be remembered now.