Shloka 35
स्त्रीपर्व — अध्याय १५: गान्धारी-युधिष्ठिर-संवादः
Gandhārī’s Confrontation and Consolation of Yudhiṣṭhira
अपश्यदेतान् शस्त्रौचैर्बहुधा क्षतविक्षतान् | पुत्रोंसहित आँसू बहाकर उन्होंने उनके शरीरोंपर बारंबार दृष्टिपात किया। वे सभी अस्त्र-शस्त्रोंकी चोटसे घायल हो रहे थे ।। ३४ # || सा तानेकैकश: पुत्रान् संस्पृशन्ती पुन: पुनः:
sa tān ekaikaśaḥ putrān saṁspṛśantī punaḥ punaḥ
Vaiśampāyana said: She kept touching her sons one by one, again and again—an act of grief-stricken recognition and maternal duty—lingering over their bodies as if to confirm what war’s violence had made unbearable. In this scene, the aftermath of battle is framed not as triumph but as the ethical cost of conflict, where kinship and compassion confront the ruin wrought by weapons.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the human and ethical aftermath of war: beyond victory and defeat lies irreversible loss. The repeated touching of the sons highlights compassion, familial duty, and the stark cost of violence that dharma must reckon with.
In the Strī Parva’s lamentation scenes, a bereaved mother figure moves among the fallen and repeatedly touches her sons one by one, overwhelmed by grief and seeking recognition and closure amid the devastation left by battle.