Shloka 31
आयोधनदर्शनम्
Viewing the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra
शयाना ये पुरा सर्वे मृदूनि शयनानि च । विपन्नास्तेडद्य वसुधां विवृतामधिशेरते,“जो लोग पहले कोमल बिछौनोंपर सोया करते थे, वे सभी आज मरकर नंगी भूमिपर सो रहे हैं
śayānā ye purā sarve mṛdūni śayanāni ca | vipannās te ’dya vasudhāṃ vivṛtām adhiśerate ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “Those who once lay upon soft beds—indeed all of them—have now perished, and today they lie upon the bare earth, uncovered and exposed.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the impermanence of luxury and social standing: those who once enjoyed soft beds now lie dead on the bare earth. It functions as an ethical indictment of war’s devastation and a reminder that pride in comfort is fragile before death.
In Strī Parva’s lamentation context after the Kurukṣetra war, the narrator describes the fallen warriors. The image contrasts their former royal ease with their present state as corpses on the open ground, intensifying the grief and horror of the battlefield’s aftermath.