Shloka 29
Adhyāya 17 — Gandhārī’s Vilāpa at Duryodhana’s Body (स्त्रीपर्व, अध्याय १७)
'सुन्दर जाँघोवाली मेरी सती साध्वी पुत्रवधू कभी खूनसे भीगे हुए अपने पुत्र लक्ष्मणका मुँह सूँघती है तो कभी पति दुर्योधनका शरीर अपने हाथसे पोंछती है ।। कि नु शोचति भर्तरिं पुत्रं चैषा मनस्विनी । तथा हावस्थिता भाति पुत्र चाप्यभिवीक्ष्य सा,“पता नहीं, यह मनस्विनी बहू पुत्रके लिये शोक करती है या पतिके लिये? कुछ ऐसी ही अवस्थामें वह जान पड़ती है। माधव! वह देखो, वह विशाललोचना वधू पुत्रकी ओर देखकर दोनों हाथोंसे सिर पीटती हुई अपने वीर पति कुरुराजकी छातीपर गिर पड़ी है
vaiśampāyana uvāca | kiṃ nu śocati bhartāraṃ putraṃ caivāṣā manasvinī | tathā hy avasthitā bhāti putraṃ cāpy abhivīkṣya sā ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “Is this strong-minded woman grieving for her husband, or for her son? For she appears to be in such a state—now looking toward her son, now collapsing in anguish—so that it is hard to discern where her sorrow is fixed.” In the ethical shadow of war, the verse highlights the divided loyalties of a widow-mother and the human cost that overwhelms all claims of victory.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the moral and emotional devastation left by war: grief does not follow neat categories of duty or allegiance. A single person can be torn between spousal and parental bonds, revealing how violence collapses social ideals into raw human suffering.
Vaiśampāyana describes a woman in intense mourning whose gestures and gaze shift between her husband and her son. Her condition is so overwhelmed that an observer cannot tell whether her lament is primarily for the husband or for the son—showing the scene of bereavement in the aftermath of the Kurukṣetra war.