Shloka 12
स्त्रीपर्व — अध्याय १५: गान्धारी-युधिष्ठिर-संवादः
Gandhārī’s Confrontation and Consolation of Yudhiṣṭhira
गान्धायुवाच न तस्यैष वधस्तात यत् प्रशंससि मे सुतम् । कृतवांश्षापि तत् सर्व यदिदं भाषसे मयि,गान्धारी बोलीं-- तात! तुम मेरे पुत्रकी इतनी प्रशंसा कर रहे हो; इसलिये यह उसका वध नहीं हुआ (वह अपने यशोमय शरीरसे अमर है) और मेरे सामने तुम जो कुछ कह रहे हो, वह सारा अपराध दुर्योधनने अवश्य किया है
gāndhāry uvāca na tasyaiṣa vadhastāta yat praśaṃsasi me sutam | kṛtavān so 'pi tat sarvaṃ yad idaṃ bhāṣase mayi ||
Gāndhārī said: “Dear child, this is not truly his ‘death’ in the sense you imply, since you praise my son so highly—his fame makes him, as it were, enduring. And whatever you are saying to me here, all of that wrongdoing was indeed committed by Duryodhana.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights moral accountability: praise or fame cannot erase wrongdoing, and responsibility for adharma rests on the doer—here, Gāndhārī acknowledges that the blame for the misdeeds belongs to Duryodhana himself.
In the aftermath of the war, Gāndhārī responds to words spoken in her presence about her son. She reframes ‘death’ through the lens of lasting fame while simultaneously affirming that the culpable actions being discussed were committed by Duryodhana.