Shloka 21
दुर्योधनस्य लज्जा-प्रायोपवेशविचारः
Duryodhana’s Shame and Consideration of Prāyopaveśa
सुवाससो हि ते भार्या वल्कलाजिनसंवृताम् । पश्यन्तु दुःखितां कृष्णां सा च निर्विद्यतां पुन:,“तुम्हारी रानियाँ सुन्दर साड़ियाँ पहनकर चलें और वनमें वल्कल एवं मृगचर्म लपेटकर दुःखमें डूबी हुई द्रपदकुमारी कृष्णाको देखें तथा द्रौपदी भी इन्हें देखकर बार-बार संताप करे
suvāsaso hi te bhāryā valkalājinasaṃvṛtām | paśyantu duḥkhitāṃ kṛṣṇāṃ sā ca nirvidyatāṃ punaḥ ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “Let your wives, dressed in fine garments, behold Kṛṣṇā (Draupadī) sunk in sorrow, wrapped in bark-cloth and deer-skin in the forest; and seeing them, let Draupadī again and again feel a renewed anguish and revulsion.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the ethical cruelty of contrasting luxury with another’s forced hardship: it frames humiliation as an intentional act that deepens suffering, warning how envy and spite violate dharma by taking pleasure in another’s distress.
A speaker (reported by Vaiśampāyana) proposes that the well-adorned wives/queens should go and look upon Draupadī in her forest condition—clad in bark and deer-skin and overwhelmed by grief—so that Draupadī, seeing them, is repeatedly pained and disheartened.