Shloka 563
धृतराष्ट्रविलापः — Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s Lament and Inquiry (Śalya-parva, Adhyāya 2)
सेनापतिं प्रणेतारं किमकुर्वत मामका: । धृतराष्ट्रने कहा--संजय! भीष्म और द्रोणाचार्यके वधका तथा युद्ध-संचालक सेनापति सूतपुत्र कर्णके विनाशका समाचार सुनकर मेरे पुत्रोंने क्या किया?
senāpatiṃ praṇetāraṃ kim akurvata māmakāḥ |
Vaiśampāyana said: “What did my own kinsmen—the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra—do after hearing the report that Bhīṣma and Droṇācārya had been slain, and that Karṇa, the charioteer’s son who served as commander and director of the war, had been destroyed?”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the collapse of worldly reliance on power and leadership: when principal protectors and commanders fall, those attached to victory and lineage confront fear, grief, and moral reckoning—suggesting that adharma-driven ambition is unstable and ultimately self-defeating.
The narration frames Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s anxious inquiry to Sañjaya: after receiving news of the deaths of Bhīṣma and Droṇa and the destruction of Karṇa—who had become the Kaurava commander and war-director—he asks what his sons (the Kauravas) did next.