Shloka 3
स्त्री-विलापः — गान्धार्याः रणभूमिदर्शनं शापवचनं च
Battlefield Lament and Gāndhārī’s Curse
इमौ तौ परिघप्रख्यौ बाहू शुभतलाड्गुली । ययोर्विवरमापन्नां न रतिर्मा पुराजहात्
imau tau parighaprakhyau bāhū śubhatala-aṅgulī | yayor vivaram āpannāṃ na ratir mā purājahāt |
Vaiśampāyana said: “These two arms, like iron clubs, with auspicious palms and fingers—when a gap came between them, my delight and love never left me, as it once did before.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how powerful attachment and affection can persist even amid separation and catastrophe, a key ethical undercurrent in the Strī Parva’s lamentations: after war, the mind clings to remembered intimacy, intensifying grief and revealing the human cost of violence.
In the Strī Parva’s mourning context, the speaker (as reported by Vaiśampāyana) evokes vivid bodily imagery—two club-like arms with beautiful palms and fingers—and recalls that even when separation arose between them, personal love and delight did not depart, underscoring the emotional devastation following the war.