Shloka 16
ऋषिसमागमः — युधिष्ठिरस्य शोकवर्णनम्
Sage Assembly and Yudhiṣṭhira’s Articulation of Grief
कि नु वक्ष्यति वार्ष्णेयी वधूमें मधुसूदनम् । द्वारकावासिनी कृष्णमित: प्रतिगतं हरिम्
ki nu vakṣyati vārṣṇeyī vadhū me madhusūdanam | dvārakāvāsinī kṛṣṇam itaḥ pratigataṃ harim ||
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “What, indeed, will my daughter-in-law—the Vārṣṇeya maiden Subhadrā, who lives in Dvārakā—say to Madhusūdana Kṛṣṇa, to Hari, when he returns from here to Dvārakā?”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights Yudhiṣṭhira’s moral anxiety after the war: even private family relationships (Subhadrā in Dvārakā) become sites of ethical reckoning, showing how dharma is felt not only in public duty but also in the intimate consequences of one’s actions.
Yudhiṣṭhira, burdened by the devastation of the Kurukṣetra war, worries about Kṛṣṇa’s return to Dvārakā and wonders what Subhadrā—his daughter-in-law and a Vṛṣṇi woman residing there—will say to Kṛṣṇa when he arrives.