Shloka 14
Chapter 10: Survivors Console the Royal Couple and Disperse (धृतराष्ट्र–गान्धारी प्रति निवेदनम्)
व्रीडां जग्मु: पुरा या: सम सखीनामपि योषित: । ता एकवस्त्रा निर्लज्जा: श्वश्रूणां पुरतो5भवन्,जो युवतियाँ पहले सखियोंके सामने आनेमें भी लजाती थीं, वे ही उस दिन लाज छोड़कर एक वस्त्र धारण किये अपनी सासुओंके सामने उपस्थित हो गयी थीं
vrīḍāṃ jagmuḥ purā yāḥ sama-sakhīnām api yoṣitaḥ | tā ekavastrā nirlajjāḥ śvaśrūṇāṃ purato 'bhavan |
Vaiśampāyana said: Those women who earlier would feel modesty even before their own close friends, on that day cast aside shame and appeared before their mothers-in-law wearing only a single garment—an image of how grief and catastrophe can strip away ordinary social restraints.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how extreme suffering can overturn ordinary codes of decorum: modesty and social boundaries collapse under the weight of bereavement. Ethically, it underscores the human cost of war and invites compassion rather than judgment toward those whose behavior is altered by trauma.
In the aftermath of the Kurukṣetra devastation described in Strī Parva, women come forward in mourning. Those who once felt shy even among friends now appear before their mothers-in-law wearing only one garment, indicating disarray, shock, and the intensity of lamentation.