Shloka 20
Gāndhārī’s Lament and the Identification of Duḥśāsana (स्त्रीपर्व, अध्याय १८)
गदया भीमसेनेन पश्य माधव मे सुतम् । द्यूतक््लेशाननुस्मृत्य द्रौपदीनोदितेन च,माधव! देखो, द्यूतक्रीडाके समय पाये हुए क्लेशोंको स्मरण करके द्रौपदीसे प्रेरित हुए भीमसेनने मेरे इस पुत्रको गदासे मार डाला है
gadayā bhīmasenena paśya mādhava me sutam | dyūtakleśān anusmṛtya draupadīnoditena ca ||
ഹേ മാധവാ! എന്റെ പുത്രനെ നോക്കുക—ദ്യൂതക്രീഡയിൽ ലഭിച്ച അപമാനവും ക്ലേശവും ഓർത്ത്, ദ്രൗപദിയുടെ പ്രേരണയാൽ ഭീമസേനൻ ഗദകൊണ്ട് അവനെ അടിച്ചു വീഴ്ത്തി.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how remembered injustice (the dyūta humiliation) can fuel retaliatory violence, showing the long moral shadow of adharma: wrongdoing does not end with the act, but ripens into further suffering and ethically fraught retribution.
Vaiśampāyana reports to the listener that Bhīmasena has killed the speaker’s son with a mace, acting under Draupadī’s urging and recalling the torments of the dice-game—linking the battlefield death directly to the earlier episode of humiliation.