Shloka 53
आयोधनदर्शनम्
Viewing the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra
बाहूरुचरणानन्यान् विशिखोन्मथितान् पृथक् । संदधत्यो5सुखाविष्टा मूर्च्छन्त्येता: पुन: पुन:,“बाणोंसे कट-कटकर अलग हुई बाँहों, जाँघों और पैरोंको जोड़ती हुई ये दुःखी अबलाएँ बारंबार मूर्च्छित हो जाती हैं
bāhūru-caraṇān anyān viśikhonmathitān pṛthak | saṃdadhatyo 'sukhāviṣṭā mūrcchanty etāḥ punaḥ punaḥ ||
Vaiśampāyana said: Stricken with grief, these helpless women try to fit together—each separately—the arms, thighs, and feet that have been severed and torn apart by arrows; and again and again they faint, overwhelmed by sorrow amid the aftermath of war.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the ethical reality that war’s violence extends beyond combatants, leaving families—especially women—devastated; it invites compassion and reflection on the human cost of adharma and unchecked aggression.
In the Strī Parva’s lamentation scenes after the Kurukṣetra war, women move among the dead, trying in shock to rejoin severed limbs of their loved ones, repeatedly fainting from unbearable grief.