Shloka 6
Adhyāya 17 — Gandhārī’s Vilāpa at Duryodhana’s Body (स्त्रीपर्व, अध्याय १७)
मामयं प्राह वार्ष्णेय प्राउजलिनृपसत्तम: । अस्मिन् ज्ञातिसमुद्धर्षे जयमम्बा ब्रवीतु मे,वे पास ही खड़े हुए श्रीकृष्णसे इस प्रकार कहने लगीं--वृष्णिनन्दन! प्रभो! भाई- बन्धुओंका विनाश करनेवाला जब यह भीषण संग्राम उपस्थित हुआ था, उस समय इस नृपश्रेष्ठ दुर्योधनने मुझसे हाथ जोड़कर कहा--“माताजी! कुटुम्बीजनोंके इस संग्राममें आप मुझे मेरी विजयके लिये आशीर्वाद दें”
vaiśampāyana uvāca |
āmāṃ prāha vārṣṇeya prāñjalir nṛpasattamaḥ |
asmin jñātisamuddharṣe jayam ambā bravītu me ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “O Vārṣṇeya (Kṛṣṇa), the foremost of kings (Duryodhana) once addressed me with folded hands. When this dreadful upheaval among kinsmen—the war that destroys one’s own relatives—had arisen, he said: ‘Mother, in this battle of our family, speak for me a blessing for victory.’” The passage highlights the moral tension of war: even when the conflict is rooted in kinship and adharma, a ruler seeks religious sanction and maternal approval, revealing how personal ambition attempts to cloak itself in the language of duty and blessing.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the ethical strain of civil war: even a claimant driven by rivalry seeks moral and religious validation through a mother’s blessing, showing how power can attempt to appropriate the language of dharma while participating in kin-destroying violence.
Vaiśampāyana recounts to Kṛṣṇa that Duryodhana, with folded hands, approached an elder woman addressed as ‘Mother’ and requested that she utter a blessing for his victory when the terrible conflict among relatives (the Kuru war) arose.