Shloka 27
Adhyāya 17 — Gandhārī’s Vilāpa at Duryodhana’s Body (स्त्रीपर्व, अध्याय १७)
कथं तु शतधा नेदं हृदयं मम दीर्यते । पश्यन्त्या निहतं पुत्र पुत्रेण सहितं रणे,“रणभूमिमें वही मेरा पुत्र अपने पुत्रके साथ ही मार डाला गया है, इसे इस अवस्थामें देखकर मेरे इस हृदयके सैकड़ों टुकड़े क्यों नहीं हो जाते?
kathaṁ tu śatadhā nedaṁ hṛdayaṁ mama dīryate | paśyantyā nihataṁ putra putreṇa sahitaṁ raṇe ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “How is it that my heart does not split into a hundred pieces, when I behold my son slain on the battlefield—slain together with his own son? Seeing this state, how can the heart endure?”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds the human cost of war: even when battle is framed by duty, its aftermath is unbearable grief. It implicitly critiques the devastation that violence brings to family lines—son and grandson falling together—showing how dharma in war is shadowed by profound suffering.
In the Strī Parva’s lamentation setting after the great war, the speaker voices a cry of anguish at seeing a loved one dead on the battlefield—specifically, a son slain along with his own son—wondering how the heart can fail to shatter from such a sight.