Mahabharata — Stree Parva, Shloka 16

Saṃsāra-gahana-jñāna: Vidura’s Account of Embodiment, Bondage, and Dharmic Release (संसारगहन-ज्ञानम्)

Devanagari script

सर्वे पितृवनं प्राप्ता: स्वपन्ति विगतत्वच: । निमसैरस्थिभूयिष्ैगत्रि: स्नायुनिबन्धनै:

Transliteration

sarve pitṛvanaṁ prāptāḥ svapanti vigatatvacaḥ | nimasair asthibhūyiṣṭhair gātraiḥ snāyunibandhanaiḥ ||

Translation

તેઓ બધા પિતૃવનમાં પહોંચી ગયા છે અને જાણે ઊંઘતા હોય તેમ પડ્યા છે—ચામડી વિનાના, શરીર મોટેભાગે હાડકાંરૂપ, માત્ર સ્નાયુઓના બંધનથી જ જોડાયેલા।

Word by Word

• सर्वे: all
• सर्वे: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: सर्व
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Plural

• पितृवनम्: the forest of the Fathers (ancestral forest)
• पितृवनम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: पितृवन
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

• प्राप्ताः: having reached
• प्राप्ताः: Karta
• Type: Verb
• Root: प्र-आप् (प्राप्)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Plural, क्त (past passive participle)

• स्वपन्ति: sleep
• स्वपन्ति: Karta
• Type: Verb
• Root: स्वप्
• Form: Present, Third, Plural, Parasmaipada

• विगतत्वचः: whose skin is gone; skinless
• विगतत्वचः: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: विगतत्वच्
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Plural

• निम्नैः: with hollows/depressions
• निम्नैः: Karana
• Type: Adjective
• Root: निम्न
• Form: Neuter, Instrumental, Plural

• अस्थिभूयिष्ठैः: mostly bones; bone-dominant
• अस्थिभूयिष्ठैः: Karana
• Type: Adjective
• Root: अस्थिभूयिष्ठ
• Form: Neuter, Instrumental, Plural

• गात्रैः: with bodies/limbs
• गात्रैः: Karana
• Type: Noun
• Root: गात्र
• Form: Neuter, Instrumental, Plural

• स्नायुनिबन्धनैः: with bindings of sinews (held together by tendons)
• स्नायुनिबन्धनैः: Karana
• Type: Noun
• Root: स्नायुनिबन्धन
• Form: Neuter, Instrumental, Plural

Speaker

विदुर उवाच

Characters & Entities

• विदुर (Vidura)
• पितृवन (Pitṛvana—abode/forest of the ancestors)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores the stark impermanence of embodied life and the moral gravity of war: those once powerful are now indistinguishable as corpses. It presses the listener toward sober reflection on dharma, restraint, and the human cost of violence.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Stree Parva’s lamentation context after the Kurukṣetra war, Vidura describes the slain as lying in the realm of the dead—skinless, flesh wasted, bodies reduced to bones—evoking the battlefield’s horrific aftermath and intensifying the mood of grief and reckoning.