Shloka 37
अशोचत् तत्र वैदर्भी कि नु मे दुष्कृतं कृतम् । योऊपि मे निर्जने5रण्ये सम्प्राप्तोडयं जनार्णव:,विदर्भराजकुमारी दमयन्ती भी इसके लिये शोक करने लगी कि “मैंने कौन-सा पाप किया है, जिससे इस निर्जन वनमें मुझे जो यह समुद्रके समान जनसमुदाय प्राप्त हो गया था, वह भी मेरे ही दुर्भाग्यसे हाथियोंके झुंडद्वारा मारा गया। निश्चय ही मुझे अभी दीर्घकालतक दुःख-ही-दुःख भोगना है
aśocat tatra vaidarbhī ki nu me duṣkṛtaṃ kṛtam | yo 'pi me nirjane 'raṇye samprāpto 'yaṃ janārṇavaḥ ||
There, the princess of Vidarbha lamented: “What wrongdoing have I done? Even this sea-like multitude of people that had come to me in this lonely forest has, by my ill fortune, been destroyed by a herd of elephants. Surely I must still endure sorrow for a long time.”
बृहदश्चव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the human tendency to interpret sudden calamity through the lens of karma—asking what personal wrongdoing could have ripened into present suffering—while also underscoring endurance (kṣānti) amid misfortune.
Damayantī, alone in the forest, mourns after a large group of people who had gathered around her is destroyed by a herd of elephants; she interprets the tragedy as a sign of her own ill fortune and anticipates prolonged suffering.