Shloka 19

Devanagari script

युगान्तकाले सम्प्राप्ते भूतानां दह्युतामिव । अभाव: स्यादयं प्राप्त इति भूतानि मेनिरे,प्रलयकाल आनेपर दग्ध होते हुए प्राणियोंके चीखने-चिल्लानेके समान उन स्त्रियोंके रोनेका वह महान्‌ शब्द गूँज रहा था। सब प्राणी ऐसा समझने लगे कि यह संहारकाल आ पहुँचा है

Transliteration

yugāntakāle samprāpte bhūtānāṁ dahyutām iva | abhāvaḥ syād ayaṁ prāpta iti bhūtāni menire ||

Translation

Vaiśampāyana said: When the end of an age seemed to have arrived, the lamentation resounded like the cries of living beings being burned at the time of cosmic dissolution. Hearing it, creatures everywhere imagined, “This must be the hour of annihilation that has come upon us.”

Word by Word

युगान्तकालेat the time of the end of the age

सम्प्राप्तेwhen (it) had arrived / on arrival

भूतानाम्of beings/creatures

दह्युताम्burning (one) / being burnt (as if)

इवas if, like

अभावःnon-existence, destruction

स्यात्might be / would be

अयम्this

प्राप्तःarrived, come

इतिthus

भूतानिbeings/creatures

मेनिरेthought, supposed

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vaiśampāyana

bhūtāni (all beings/creatures)

yugānta (end of the age)

pralaya (cosmic dissolution, implied)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Cross References

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse uses pralaya (cosmic dissolution) imagery to show how war’s aftermath overwhelms ordinary moral and emotional limits: collective grief can feel world-ending, reminding the listener of impermanence and the catastrophic ethical cost of violence.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Strī Parva’s mourning scenes, the women’s wailing becomes so immense that it is compared to the screams of beings burning at the end of time; even other creatures mistake the sound for the arrival of universal destruction.