Shloka 18
स्त्रीपर्व — गान्धारीभीमसेनसंवादः
Strī-parva — Gāndhārī–Bhīmasena Dialogue on Wartime Conduct
युध्यमाना हि कौरव्या: कृन्तमाना: परस्परम् | निहता: सहिताश्षान्यैस्तच्च नास्त्यप्रियं मम,कौरव आपसमें ही जूझकर मारकाट मचाते हुए अपने दूसरे साथियोंके साथ मारे गये हैं; अत: इसमें मुझे अप्रिय लगनेवाली कोई बात नहीं है
yudhyamānā hi kauravyāḥ kṛntamānāḥ parasparam | nihatāḥ sahitāḥ śānyais tac ca nāsty apriyaṃ mama ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “The Kaurava women’s own men, locked in combat and cutting one another down, have been slain together with their companions. Therefore, in this there is nothing that is painful or unwelcome to me.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames the catastrophe as self-wrought: mutual violence rebounds upon its agents. Ethically, it underscores how adharma in war—hatred and reciprocal slaughter—culminates in collective ruin, making the outcome appear as a consequence rather than an arbitrary injustice.
In the aftermath of the great battle, the narrator reports that the Kaurava side has been destroyed through mutual fighting and slaughter, along with their allies/companions, and remarks that this fact contains nothing personally ‘unwelcome’ to him—presenting the destruction as an expected result of their own actions.