Shloka 50
आयोधनदर्शनम्
Viewing the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra
“बहुत-सी स्त्रियाँ स््वजनोंकी लाशोंको देखकर रोती, चिललाती और विलाप करती हैं। कितनी ही कोमल हाथोंवाली कामिनियाँ अपने हाथोंसे सिर पीट रही हैं ।। शिरोभि: पतितैहस्तै: स्ज्लिर्यूथश: कृतैः: । इतरेतरसम्पृक्तैराकीर्णा भाति मेदिनी
śirobhiḥ patitaiḥ hastaiḥ strī-yūthaśaḥ kṛtaiḥ | itaretara-sampṛktair ākīrṇā bhāti medinī ||
Vaiśampāyana said: The earth appears strewn and choked with clusters of women—some fallen with their heads bowed, others with hands cast down—intermingled with one another in helpless grief. In the aftermath of war, the scene is not of victory but of moral ruin: bereavement overwhelms the living, and the cost of violence is measured in shattered families and public lamentation.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the ethical reality that war’s consequences fall heavily on the innocent and the bereaved; the ‘victory’ of battle culminates in social and familial devastation, prompting reflection on dharma, responsibility, and the true cost of violence.
In Strī Parva, after the Kurukṣetra slaughter, women move among the dead and mourn. Here the narrator depicts the ground as crowded with groups of grieving women, collapsed and intermingled in sorrow, conveying the overwhelming scale of loss.