Shloka 17
अध्याय ९ — दुर्योधनस्य अन्त्यावस्था, विलापः, तथा सौप्तिक-प्रतिवृत्तम्
Duryodhana’s Final Condition, Lamentation, and the Night’s Report
उपासत द्विजा: पूर्वमर्थहेतोर्यमी श्वरम् उपासते च तं हाद्य क्रव्यादा मांसहेतव:,पहले बहुत-से ब्राह्मण धनकी प्राप्तिके लिये जिन नरेशके पास बैठे रहते थे, उन्हींके समीप आज मांसके लिये मांसाहारी जन्तु बैठे हुए हैं
upāsata dvijāḥ pūrvam arthahator yamīśvaram | upāsate ca taṃ hādya kravyādā māṃsahetavaḥ ||
Kripa nói: “Xưa kia, nhiều vị Bà-la-môn ngồi hầu cận vị vua ấy để cầu của cải và ân huệ. Nhưng hôm nay, ngay tại chốn ấy, bầy thú ăn thịt ngồi gần ngài, chỉ vì miếng thịt.”
कृप उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse contrasts two kinds of ‘attendance’ on power—earlier, brahmins seeking wealth and royal favor; now, flesh-eaters seeking meat—highlighting how violence and the collapse of dharma degrade a royal court from a place of patronage and counsel into a site of death and predation.
In the Sauptika Parva’s aftermath of the night massacre, Kṛpa laments the changed condition around the fallen ruler: where learned men once gathered for support and gifts, scavengers and predators now gather, drawn by corpses—an image of the battlefield’s grim reversal of social order.