Shloka 5
Strī-parva Adhyāya 22 — Gāndhārī’s Battlefield Lament for the Fallen (Āvantya, Bāhlika, Jayadratha, and Duḥśalā)
प्रातिपेयं महेष्वासं हतं भल्लेन बाह्विकम् | प्रसुप्तमिव शार्दूलं पश्य कृष्ण मनस्विनम्,श्रीकृष्ण! देखो, महाधनुर्धर प्रतीपनन्दन मनस्वी बाह्लिक भल्लसे मारे जाकर सोये हुए सिंहके समान पड़े हैं
prātīpeyaṃ maheṣvāsaṃ hataṃ bhallena bāhvikaṃ | prasuptam iva śārdūlaṃ paśya kṛṣṇa manasvinam ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “Behold, O Kṛṣṇa, Prātīpeya Bāhlika—an eminent archer—slain by a bhalla-arrow. That high-minded warrior lies there like a tiger fallen into sleep.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the stark impermanence of martial glory: even a ‘tiger-like’ hero can be brought down in war, inviting reflection on the cost of violence and the fragility of human life—central to the ethical grief of the Strīparvan.
In the aftermath of the Kurukṣetra war, the narrator points out to Kṛṣṇa the body of the great archer Bāhlika (Prātīpeya), killed by a bhalla-arrow, lying motionless like a sleeping tiger.