Shloka 22
Gaṅgā-tīra Udaka-kriyā and Kuntī’s Disclosure of Karṇa’s Maternity
Strī-parva, Adhyāya 27
अभिमन्योर्विनाशेन द्रौपदेयवधेन च,“अभिमन्यु, द्रौपदीके पुत्र और पांचालोंके विनाशसे तथा कुरुकुलके इस पतनसे हमें जितना दुःख हुआ था, उससे सौ गुना यह दुःख इस समय मुझे अत्यन्त व्यथित कर रहा है
abhimanyor vināśena draupadeya-vadhena ca | abhimanyu-draupadīke putra-pāñcālānāṁ vināśena tathā kuru-kulasya asya patanena ca asmākaṁ yāvat duḥkhaṁ abhavat, tataḥ śata-guṇaṁ idānīṁ duḥkham mama atīva vyathitaṁ karoti |
Vaiśampāyana said: “By the destruction of Abhimanyu and by the slaughter of Draupadī’s sons—by the ruin of Abhimanyu, the sons of Draupadī, and the Pāñcālas, and by this collapse of the Kuru line—the sorrow we once felt has now returned a hundredfold. At this moment it torments me intensely.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores how violence multiplies suffering: even victories and prior losses are eclipsed by the compounded grief that follows the collapse of families and lineages. It highlights the ethical weight of war’s aftermath—sorrow does not end with the battlefield but deepens through cascading destruction.
In Strī Parva’s lamentation setting, the narrator Vaiśampāyana voices the overwhelming grief caused by the deaths of Abhimanyu and Draupadī’s sons and by the broader downfall of the Kuru line, stating that the present sorrow feels a hundred times greater than earlier pain.