Shloka 25
अभिमन्युविलापः (Abhimanyu-vilāpa) — Uttarā’s lament, observed and framed by Gandhārī
कामिदानीं नरव्याप्र शलक्षणया स्मितया गिरा । पितृलोके समेत्यान्यां मामिवामन्त्रयिष्यसि,“नरश्रेष्ठूल आप पितृलोकमें जाकर इस समय मेरी ही तरह दूसरी किस स्त्रीको मन्द मुसकानके साथ मीठी वाणीद्वारा बुलायेंगे?
kām idānīṃ naravyāghra śalakṣaṇayā smitayā girā | pitṛloke sametyānyāṃ mām ivāmantayiṣyasi ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “O tiger among men, when you have gone to the world of the Fathers, which other woman will you then summon—just as you summon me now—by your gentle smile and sweet, well-befitting words?”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the ethical and emotional cost of war: death severs marital companionship, leaving the survivor to confront loneliness and the uncertainty of reunion. It underscores the human dimension of dharma—how actions in conflict ripple into intimate bonds and grief.
In the Strī Parva’s lamentation context, a bereaved woman addresses a fallen hero as “naravyāghra,” imagining him departing to Pitṛloka. She asks, with poignant irony, whom he will now address there with the same gentle smile and sweet words with which he used to address her.