Mahabharata 11.23.29 — Stree Parva, Adhyaya 23, Shloka 29
Gāndhārī’s Battlefield Survey: The Fallen and the Onset of Funeral Rites (शल्य-भगीरथ-भीष्म-द्रोणादि-दर्शनम्)
यं पुरोधाय कुरव आह्वयन्ति सम पाण्डवान् | सो<यं शस्त्रभतां श्रेष्ठो द्रोण: शस्त्रै: परिक्षत:
yaṁ purodhāya kuravā āhvayanta sama pāṇḍavān | so ’yaṁ śastrabhatāṁ śreṣṭho droṇaḥ śastraiḥ parikṣataḥ ||
ヴァイシャンパーヤナは言った。「クル族がパーンダヴァらに挑むため先頭に立てた者——武器を執る者の中で最上のドローナその人が、いまや武器に裂かれ傷ついて横たわる。」
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the ethical and existential lesson that martial greatness and worldly status are impermanent; war driven by unrighteous aims consumes even the most eminent figures, turning pride and power into grief and ruin.
In the lament-filled context of Strī Parva, Vaiśampāyana points to Droṇa—once placed at the forefront by the Kauravas to confront the Pāṇḍavas—and notes that he is now grievously wounded and destroyed by weapons, a stark marker of the war’s devastation.
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