Shloka 30
स्त्री-विलापः — गान्धार्याः रणभूमिदर्शनं शापवचनं च
Battlefield Lament and Gāndhārī’s Curse
अवध्या: पाण्डवा: कृष्ण सर्व एव त्वया सह । ये मुक्ता द्रोणभीष्माभ्यां कर्णाद् वैकर्तनात् कृपात्,श्रीकृष्ण! तुम्हारे साथ ही ये समस्त पाण्डव अवध्य जान पड़ते हैं, जो कि द्रोण, भीष्म, वैकर्तन कर्ण, कृपाचार्य, दुर्योधन, द्रोणपुत्र अश्वत्थामा, सिंधुराज जयद्रथ, सोमदत्त, विकर्ण और शूरवीर कृतवर्माके हाथसे जीवित बच गये हैं
avadhyāḥ pāṇḍavāḥ kṛṣṇa sarva eva tvayā saha | ye muktā droṇabhīṣmābhyāṃ karṇād vaikartanāt kṛpāt ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “O Kṛṣṇa, the Pāṇḍavas—every one of them, together with you—seem beyond the reach of death; for they have escaped alive from Droṇa and Bhīṣma, from Karṇa the son of the charioteer, and from Kṛpa.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the perceived inviolability of the righteous when supported by wise guidance and divine favor: despite facing the greatest warriors, the Pāṇḍavas survive, suggesting that dharma aligned with Kṛṣṇa’s protection can appear ‘unslayable’ in the moral imagination of the epic.
In the aftermath of the war (Stree Parva’s lamentation context), the narrator remarks that the Pāṇḍavas, with Kṛṣṇa, have astonishingly survived encounters with the foremost Kaurava champions—Droṇa, Bhīṣma, Karṇa, and Kṛpa—underscoring both the scale of danger they endured and the extraordinary nature of their deliverance.