Shloka 13
स्त्रीपर्व — गान्धारीविलापः
Strī Parva — Gāndhārī’s Lament over the Fallen
सत्रीणां रुदितनिर्घोष: श्वापदानां च गर्जितम् | चित्ररूपमिदं कृष्ण विचित्र प्रतिभाति मे,श्रीकृष्ण! एक ओर स्त्रियोंके रोनेकी आवाज है तो दूसरी ओर हिंसक जन्तुओंकी गर्जना हो रही है। यह अद्भुत दृश्य मुझे विचित्र प्रतीत होता है
vaiśampāyana uvāca |
strīṇāṁ ruditnirghoṣaḥ śvāpādānāṁ ca garjitam |
citrarūpam idaṁ kṛṣṇa vicitraṁ pratibhāti me ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “On one side there is the loud wailing of women, and on the other the roaring of beasts of prey. O Kṛṣṇa, this scene is strangely variegated—an uncanny spectacle that strikes me as deeply unsettling.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the moral cost of war: human grief (women’s lamentation) and the predatory aftermath (beasts feeding on the dead) coexist, revealing how adharma and violence deform the world into an uncanny, ethically troubling spectacle.
In the Strī Parva’s post-war setting, the narrator describes the battlefield environment: women cry out in mourning while wild predators roar nearby, conveying the horror and desolation following the Kurukṣetra slaughter.