Shloka 19
Gandhārī’s Lament for Bhūriśravas and Śakuni
Book 11, Chapter 24
अयं स रसनोत्कर्षी पीनस्तनविमर्दन: । नाभ्यूरूजघनस्पर्शी नीवीविस्नंसन: कर:,“यह वही हाथ है, जो हमारी करधनीको खींच लेता, उभरे हुए स्तनोंका मर्दन करता, नाभि, ऊरु और जघन प्रदेशको छूता और नीवीका बन्धन सरका दिया करता था
ayaṃ sa rasanotkarṣī pīnastanavimardanaḥ | nābhyūrūjaghanasparśī nīvīvisnaṃsanaḥ karaḥ ||
ヴァイシャンパーヤナは言った。「これこそあの手である—女の帯を引き、ふくらんだ乳房を弄び、臍・腿・腰を撫で、下衣の結び目をほどいた、その手である。」この偈は、戦後の女たちの嫌悪と悲嘆を呼び起こし、性的暴虐と辱めをアダルマの徴として想起させ、その報いがいま加害者に返ってきたことを示す。
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the ethical horror of sexual violation and humiliation as grave adharma. In the Stree Parva’s mourning context, it frames such acts not as private wrongdoing but as moral corruption that contributes to collective ruin and invites inevitable suffering and retribution.
In the Stree Parva, women lament over the slain after the Kurukṣetra war. This line recalls the predatory hand that once violated women—yanking a girdle, touching intimate parts, loosening garments—now identified in death, intensifying grief and condemnation of the perpetrators’ past cruelty.