Shloka 29
धृतराष्ट्रविलापः — Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s Lament and Inquiry (Śalya-parva, Adhyāya 2)
शक्तितो हानुपश्यामि निहतान् पाण्डवान् रणे । सूत! मेरे निकट दुर्योधन जब इस तरहकी बहुत-सी बातें कहने लगा तो मैं यह समझ बैठा कि “हमारी शक्तिसे समस्त पाण्डव रणभूमिमें मारे जायँगे” || २८ $ ।। तेषां मध्ये स्थिता यत्र हन्यन्ते मम पुत्रका:
śaktito hānupaśyāmi nihatān pāṇḍavān raṇe | sūta! mama nikaṭaṁ duryodhanaḥ yadā evaṁ-vidhā bahvīḥ kathāḥ prāha tadāham avabudhyam—“asmākaṁ śaktyā samastāḥ pāṇḍavā raṇabhūmau māriṣyante” || teṣāṁ madhye sthitā yatra hanyante mama putrakāḥ ||
Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: “I foresee, by the force at our command, the Pāṇḍavas lying slain in battle. O Sūta, when Duryodhana came near me and spoke many such words, I was led to believe: ‘By our power all the Pāṇḍavas will be killed on the battlefield.’ Yet it is there, in the midst of them, that my own sons are being struck down.”
धघतयाट्र उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how attachment and wishful thinking distort judgment: Dhṛtarāṣṭra, swayed by Duryodhana’s confident words, imagines victory through sheer power, yet the reality of war turns that very confidence into grief as his own sons fall. It underscores the ethical consequence of adharma-driven ambition and the blindness born of familial attachment.
Dhṛtarāṣṭra recounts to Sūta that Duryodhana approached him and spoke many confident claims. Dhṛtarāṣṭra then believed the Pāṇḍavas would be slain by Kaurava strength. But he recognizes the bitter turn: amid the same battlefield struggle, it is his own sons who are being killed.