Shloka 33
स्त्री-विलापः — गान्धार्याः रणभूमिदर्शनं शापवचनं च
Battlefield Lament and Gāndhārī’s Curse
नातिभारो<स्ति दैवस्य ध्रुवं माधव कश्नन । यदिमे निहता: शूरा: क्षत्रियै: क्षत्रियर्षभा:
nātibhāro 'sti daivasya dhruvaṁ mādhava kaścana | yad ime nihatāḥ śūrāḥ kṣatriyaiḥ kṣatriyarṣabhāḥ ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “Surely, O Mādhava, nothing is an excessive burden for Destiny. For these heroic bulls among kṣatriyas have been slain by kṣatriyas.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames the catastrophic slaughter as operating within daiva (destiny): for fate, no outcome is ‘too heavy’ to bring about, and the mutual destruction of kṣatriyas is presented as a grim but intelligible consequence within the warrior order’s world.
In the Stree Parva’s aftermath of the Kurukṣetra war, Vaiśampāyana addresses Kṛṣṇa (Mādhava), reflecting on how the foremost warriors have fallen—kṣatriyas killing kṣatriyas—underscoring the scale of loss and the sense of inevitability attributed to destiny.