Shloka 1
Gāndhārī’s Lament and the Identification of Duḥśāsana (स्त्रीपर्व, अध्याय १८)
अपर बक। है >> >> अष्टादशो< ध्याय: अपने अन्य हे कक तथा दुःशासनको देखकर गान्धारीका सम्मुख विलाप गान्धायुवाच पश्य माधव पुत्रान्मे शतसंख्याजञ्जितक्लमान् । गदया भीमसेनेन भूयिष्ठं निहतान् रणे,गान्धारी बोलीं--माधव! जो परिश्रमको जीत चुके थे, उन मेरे सौ पुत्रोंको देखो, जिन्हें रणभूमिमें प्रायः भीमसेनने अपनी गदासे मार डाला है
gāndhāry uvāca | paśya mādhava putrān me śata-saṅkhyān jitaklamān | gadayā bhīmasenena bhūyiṣṭhaṃ nihatān raṇe ||
Gāndhārī said: “Look, O Mādhava, upon my sons—numbering a hundred—who had endured and overcome exhaustion. See how, on the battlefield, most of them have been slain by Bhīmasena with his mace.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds the moral and emotional cost of war: even those who fought bravely and endured hardship become objects of grief, and victory yields sorrow. It frames the ethical tension between martial duty and the devastating human consequences that follow.
In the Strī Parva’s aftermath, Gāndhārī confronts Kṛṣṇa (Mādhava) and points to her dead sons on the battlefield, emphasizing that most were killed by Bhīma with his mace, expressing a mother’s lament and the tragedy of the Kaurava destruction.