Shloka 13
स्त्रीपर्व — अध्याय १५: गान्धारी-युधिष्ठिर-संवादः
Gandhārī’s Confrontation and Consolation of Yudhiṣṭhira
हताश्वे नकुले यत्तु वृषसेनेन भारत । अपिब: शोणितं संख्ये द:ःशासनशरीरजम्
hatāśve nakule yat tu vṛṣasenenā bhārata | apibaḥ śoṇitaṃ saṅkhye duḥśāsanaśarīrajam ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “O Bhārata, as for that deed—when Nakula’s horses had been slain—Vṛṣasena, in the thick of battle, drank blood that had issued from Duḥśāsana’s body.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the moral collapse that war can produce: acts that transgress ordinary human and dharmic boundaries are narrated as signs of the battlefield’s brutalizing force and the spiraling logic of vengeance.
Vaiśampāyana recounts a specific battlefield incident: after Nakula’s horses were killed, Vṛṣasena is described as drinking blood that flowed from Duḥśāsana’s body during combat.