Shloka 38
स हतो हस्तियूथेन मन्दभाग्यान्ममैव तत् | प्राप्तव्यं सुचिरं दु:खं नूनमद्यापि वै मया,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
sa hato hastiyūthena mandabhāgyān mamaiva tat | prāptavyaṃ suciraṃ duḥkhaṃ nūnam adyāpi vai mayā ||
Bṛhadaśva said: “That (company and support) has been destroyed by a herd of elephants—through my own ill fortune. Surely, even now, a long season of suffering is still to be endured by me.” In the narrative, Damayantī laments that whatever brief refuge or ‘ocean-like’ gathering of people she had found in the wilderness has been wiped away by fate, and she reads this as the moral consequence of her own misfortune, bracing herself for continued hardship.
बृहदश्चव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights endurance under adversity: when support collapses and misfortune strikes, one must recognize suffering as a reality to be borne with steadiness, rather than surrendering to despair.
In Bṛhadaśva’s telling of the Nala–Damayantī story, Damayantī grieves that the people or protection she had found in the wilderness has been destroyed by a herd of elephants, and she concludes that prolonged suffering still awaits her.