Shloka 1
गान्धारी बोलीं--तात! देखो, ये नकुलके सगे मामा शल्य मरे पड़े हैं। इन्हें धर्मके ज्ञाता धर्मराज युधिष्ठिरने युद्धमें मारा है
gāndhārī bolī—tāta! dekho, ye nakulasya sage māmā śalyaḥ mṛtaḥ patitaḥ. enaṃ dharmajño dharmarājaḥ yudhiṣṭhiraḥ yuddhe jaghāna.
Gandhārī said, “My child, look—Śalya, Nakula’s maternal uncle, lies here slain. It was Yudhiṣṭhira, the Dharma-king famed for knowing righteousness, who killed him in battle.” The line underscores the bitter irony of war: even those celebrated for dharma become agents of death when bound to the duties and compulsions of the battlefield.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the ethical tension between personal virtue and the destructive obligations of war: even a ruler renowned as Dharmarāja becomes a killer when bound by kṣatriya-dharma, and the result is grief intensified by kinship ties.
In the aftermath of the Kurukṣetra war, Gandhārī points out Śalya’s corpse—Śalya being Nakula’s maternal uncle—and states that Yudhiṣṭhira, celebrated as a knower of dharma, killed him in battle.