Shloka 356
रोखूयमाणा दु:खार्ता दुःशला सा भविष्यति | “हाय! अपने भाइयों और पतिकी मृत्युका समाचार सुनकर दुःखसे आतुर हो अत्यन्त रोदन करती हुई मेरी बहिन दुःशलाकी क्या दशा होगी?
rokṣyamāṇā duḥkhārtā duḥśalā sā bhaviṣyati | hāy! sva-bhrātṝṇāṁ patyuś ca mṛtyu-vārttāṁ śrutvā duḥkhena āturā atyantaṁ rodanaṁ kurvatī mama bhaginī duḥśalā kīdṛśī daśāṁ prāpsyati?
Sanjaya said: “Overwhelmed by grief and breaking into incessant lamentation, my sister Duḥśalā will be undone. Alas—when she hears the news of the deaths of her brothers and of her husband, what state will she be reduced to?”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds the human cost of war: beyond victory and defeat, the ethical weight falls on families who must bear irreversible loss. It invites compassion and reflection on how violence radiates suffering to the innocent and the uninvolved.
Sañjaya anticipates Duḥśalā’s reaction upon hearing that her brothers and her husband have died. He imagines her intense grief and asks what condition she will be in, emphasizing the devastation that the war brings to the Kuru household.