Shloka 35

अभिमन्युविलापः (Abhimanyu-vilāpa) — Uttarā’s lament, observed and framed by Gandhārī

Devanagari script

आयोधनशिरोमध्ये शयानं पश्य माधव

Transliteration

āyodhanaśiromadhye śayānaṃ paśya mādhava

Translation

“O Mādhava, look—there he lies, stretched out in the very heart of the battlefield.” The line points to the stark aftermath of war: the once-mighty now fallen, inviting sober reflection on the cost of violence and the moral weight borne by victors and witnesses alike.

Word by Word

• आयोधनशिरोमध्ये: in the midst of the battlefield-head (i.e., at the head/center of the battlefield)
• आयोधनशिरोमध्ये: Adhikarana
• Type: Noun
• Root: आयोधन-शिरस्-मध्य
• Form: Neuter, Locative, Singular

• शयानम्: lying down
• शयानम्: Karma
• Type: Adjective
• Root: शी (धातु) → शय (कृदन्त-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Singular

• पश्य: see; behold
• Type: Verb
• Root: पश्
• Form: Imperative, Second, Singular

• माधव: O Mādhava (Krishna)
• Type: Noun
• Root: माधव
• Form: Masculine, Vocative, Singular

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Mādhava (Kṛṣṇa)
• āyodhana (battlefield)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores the moral and emotional reality that follows warfare: victory is inseparable from loss. By directing Mādhava to ‘see’ the fallen in the battlefield’s center, it urges clear-eyed witnessing—recognizing impermanence, the human cost of conflict, and the ethical burden that remains after dharma-driven violence.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Strī Parva’s scenes of mourning and reckoning after the Kurukṣetra war, the speaker points out someone lying fallen in the midst of the battlefield and calls upon Mādhava (Kṛṣṇa) to look. The line functions as a vivid, immediate gesture within the lamentation narrative, drawing attention to the dead or incapacitated amid the devastation.