Shloka 25
सौप्तिकपर्व — धृष्टद्युम्नसारथिवृत्तान्तः
Report of the Night Raid and Yudhiṣṭhira’s Lament
भातृश्न पुत्रांश्ष हतान् निशम्य पाज्चालराजं पितरं च वृद्धम् । ध्रुवं विसंज्ञा पतिता पृथिव्यां सा शोष्यते शोककृशाड्रयष्टि:
bhrātṝn putrāṁś ca hatān niśamya pāñcālarājaṁ pitaraṁ ca vṛddham | dhruvaṁ visaṁjñā patitā pṛthivyāṁ sā śoṣyate śokakṛśā dāruyaṣṭiḥ ||
Sūta dit : «En apprenant que ses frères et ses fils ont été tués, et que son père âgé—le roi des Pāñcālas—est lui aussi tombé, elle s’effondrera à coup sûr, sans connaissance, sur la terre. Déjà amaigrie par le chagrin, elle se desséchera davantage encore, telle un bâton de bois sec.»
सूत उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the ethical reality that the cruelty of war does not end with victory or death on the field; it radiates into households, crushing the innocent through grief. By portraying a woman already wasted by sorrow and then struck by further bereavement, it implicitly condemns violence that multiplies suffering beyond its immediate targets.
Sūta describes the expected reaction of the bereaved woman (contextually, Draupadī): when she hears that her brothers and sons have been killed and that her aged father Drupada, king of the Pāñcālas, is also dead, she will faint and fall to the ground, withering further from grief.