Shloka 19

Devanagari script

पृथुवस्त्रा मधुलिका मधुकुम्भा तथैव च | पक्षालिका मत्कुलिका जरायुर्जर्जरानना

Transliteration

pṛthuvastrā madhulikā madhukumbhā tathaiva ca | pakṣālikā matkulikā jarāyur jarjarānanā ||

Translation

वैशम्पायन बोले—पृथुवस्त्रा, मधुलिका, मधुकुम्भा; तथा पक्षालिका, मत्कुलिका, जरायु और जर्जरानना—ये (स्त्रियाँ) थीं।

Word by Word

पृथुवस्त्राःbroad-clothed (women)

मधुलिकाःhoney-sellers / honey-women (name/class)

मधुकुम्भाःthose with honey-jars / honey-pot women

तथाthus, likewise

एवindeed, just

चand

पक्षालिकाःwasherwomen / cleaners (name/class)

मत्कुलिकाःwomen of the Matkula clan / a named group

जरायुःafterbirth, placenta; (also) a being born from a womb

जर्जराननाःhaving withered/broken faces

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vaiśampāyana

Pṛthuvastrā

Madhulikā

Madhukumbhā

Pakṣālikā

Matkulikā

Jarāyu

Jarjarānanā

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

This verse is primarily enumerative rather than didactic: it preserves names within the epic’s narrative record. Such catalogues in the Mahābhārata function to memorialize participants and lineages, underscoring the vast human scope of the war narrative.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vaiśampāyana continues a list of named women (a catalogue within the Shalya Parva context), presenting successive proper names as part of a broader enumeration in the surrounding passage.