Shloka 5
Gāndhārī’s Battlefield Survey: The Fallen and the Onset of Funeral Rites (शल्य-भगीरथ-भीष्म-द्रोणादि-दर्शनम्)
अस्य चामीकराभस्य तप्तकाञउ्चनसप्रभा । आस्याद् विनि:सूृता जिद्दा भक्ष्यते कृष्ण पक्षिभि:,श्रीकृष्ण! सुवर्णके समान कान्तिमान् शल्यके मुखसे तपाये हुए सोनेके समान कान्तिवाली जीभ बाहर निकल आयी है और पक्षी उसे नोच-नोचकर खा रहे हैं
asya cāmīkarābhasya tapta-kāñcana-saprabhā | āsyād viniḥsṛtā jihvā bhakṣyate kṛṣṇa-pakṣibhiḥ ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “From the mouth of this man, whose body gleams like gold, a tongue—shining like heated, refined gold—has protruded; and dark birds are tearing at it and devouring it.” In the ethical frame of the Strī-parvan’s lament and reckoning after war, the image underscores the moral consequence of speech: words used for deceit, cruelty, or incitement return as suffering, making the tongue itself the site of retribution.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the ethical weight of speech: harmful or unrighteous words can become the cause of one’s downfall, and the tongue—instrument of speech—symbolically bears the karmic consequence.
Vaiśampāyana describes a terrifying post-war vision: a gold-lustrous figure has his tongue protruding from his mouth, and dark birds are pecking and eating it—an image of punitive suffering tied to moral wrongdoing.