Shloka 52
आयोधनदर्शनम्
Viewing the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra
शिर: कायेन संधाय प्रेक्षमाणा विचेतस: । अपश्यन्त्यो5परं तत्र नेदमस्येति दु:खिता:,“कितनी ही अचेत-सी होकर स्वजनोंकी खोज करनेवाली स्त्रियाँ एक मस्तकको निकटवर्ती धड़के साथ जोड़ करके देखती हैं और जब वह मस्तक उससे नहीं जुड़ता तथा दूसरा कोई मस्तक वहाँ देखनेमें नहीं आता तो वे दुःखी होकर कहने लगती हैं कि यह तो उनका सिर नहीं है
śiraḥ kāyena sandhāya prekṣamāṇā vicetasaḥ | apaśyantyo 'paraṃ tatra nedam asyeti duḥkhitāḥ ||
Vaiśampāyana said: Bewildered and out of their senses, the women—searching for their own—lifted a severed head and tried to fit it to a nearby trunk, peering closely. When it did not match, and when they could find no other head there, they grieved and cried, “This is not his.” The scene lays bare the moral wreckage of war: kinship reduced to fragments, and love forced into the cruel work of recognition amid slaughter.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the ethical and human devastation caused by war: even familial recognition becomes uncertain amid dismemberment, revealing how violence destroys dignity, identity, and the ordinary bonds of life.
In the aftermath of the battle, distraught women search for their slain relatives. They try to match severed heads with nearby bodies; when the head does not fit and no other head is found, they lament, “This is not his.”