Mahabharata: Volume 8

by Debroy, Bibek

  Chapter 1318(17)

  Vaishampayana said, ‘Oppressed by grief, Gandhari then saw Duryodhana. She suddenly fell down on the ground, like a severed plantain tree in a forest. Having regained her senses, she repeatedly lamented again. On seeing Duryodhana lying down, covered in blood, Gandhari embraced him and lamented piteously. “Alas! Alas, son!” She was afflicted by grief and lamented, her senses overwhelmed. His extremely broad collar bones were decorated with a golden necklace. Oppressed by grief, she sprinkled him with tears flowing from her eyes. Hrishikesha was near her and she spoke these words to him. “O lord! This war, which would lead to the destruction of relatives, presented itself. O Varshneya! At that time, this best of kings joined his hands in salutation and spoke to me. ‘O mother! In this clash that has arisen between relatives, you must pronounce words of victory over me.’ O tiger among men! Knowing everything about the catastrophe that he had brought on himself, I told him, ‘Where there is dharma, victory exists there. O son! O lord! Since you are fighting without any confusion, you are certain to obtain the worlds that can be conquered through weapons.’ O lord! Having spoken this earlier, I am not mourning him. I am sorrowing over the miserable Dhritarashtra, whose relatives have been killed. O Madhava! Look at my son. He was intolerant and the best among warriors. He was skilled in the use of weapons and was indomitable in battle. He is lying down on a bed meant for heroes. Those whose heads were consecrated50 would advance ahead of this scorcher of enemies. He is lying down in the dust now. Behold the progress of time. It is certain that the brave Duryodhana has attained an end that is not very easy to obtain. He is lying down forwards,51 on a bed loved by heroes. The lords of the earth used to honour and delight him earlier. Earlier, the best of women used to fan him with the best of whisks. He is now being fanned by the best of birds, with their wings. The strong and mighty-armed one is lying down here. Truth was his valour. He was brought down by Bhimasena in the encounter, like an elephant by a lion. O Krishna! Look at Duryodhana lying down, his body covered with blood. O descendant of the Bharata lineage!52 He has been slain by Bhimasena, with an upraised club. O Keshava! Earlier, the mighty-armed one brought eleven akshouhinis into the battle. He has now been conveyed to his destruction. This Duryodhana was a maharatha and a great archer. He is lying down. He has been brought down by Bhimasena, like a tiger by a lion. He was foolish and disrespected Vidura and his father. He was stupid and wicked and disrespected the aged. That is the reason he has fallen prey to death. He was stationed on this earth for thirteen years, without any rivals. My son was the lord of the earth. He has been slain and is lying down on the ground. O Krishna! I will not see the earth ruled by Dhritarashtra’s son. O Varshneya! It used to be full of elephants, cattle and horses. But this did not last for a long time. O mighty-armed one! I will now see it ruled by others. O Madhava! There will no longer be elephants, cattle and horses. How can I remain alive? Behold. There is a greater hardship for me than the slaying of my son. With the brave ones killed in the battle, these women are around me. O Krishna! Look at Lakshmana’s mother.53 She possesses beautiful hips, but her hair is dishevelled. She is lying down in Duryodhana’s arms and is like a golden altar. When the mighty-armed one was alive earlier, it is certain that this spirited child would nestle herself in his excellent arms and pleasure herself in those arms. How is it that my heart is not shattering into a hundred fragments? I have seen my son, together with his son, slain in the battle. The unblemished one is inhaling the fragrance on the head of her blood-stained son.54 The one with the beautiful thighs is caressing Duryodhana with her hand. How can that spirited one not sorrow over her husband and her son? She is sometimes looking at her son and sometimes at him.55 The long-eyed one is beating her head with her hands. O Madhava! She is falling down on the breast of the brave king of the Kurus. Her complexion is like that of a white lotus. Since the ascetic one had earlier wiped the faces of her son and her husband, she seems to be between two white lotuses too.56 If the sacred texts and what we have heard is true, then it is certain that the king has obtained the worlds that can be conquered through the strength of arms.”’

  Chapter 1319(18)

  ‘Gandhari said, “O Madhava! Look at my one hundred sons. They were never exhausted in a battle. In the battle, most of them were killed by Bhimasena’s club. But there is something that is causing a greater grief to me now. With their sons slain, my young daughters-in-law are running around with dishevelled hair. Their ornamented feet used to roam around on the terraces of palaces earlier and must touch the ground, wet with blood, now. As they are whirling and roaming around, crazy and tormented by grief, they are scattering vultures, jackals and crows. There is another one there, unblemished in her limbs. Her waist can be encircled by the hands. On seeing this terrible sight, she is miserable and has fallen down. O mighty-armed one! My mind can no longer find peace after I have seen the princess, Lakshmana’s mother, the daughter of a king. Some see their brothers, others see their husbands and sons slain, lying down on the ground. On seeing that they have fallen down, they are grasping their arms with their own beautiful arms. O unvanquished one! There are middle-aged women and aged ones. With their relatives killed in the terrible clash, they are weeping. Listen. O immensely strong one! Exhausted and confused, they are clinging onto the seats of chariots and the slain bodies of elephants and horses. O Krishna! Behold. There is another one who has picked up the head of her relative, severed from his body. It is beautiful, has an excellent nose and is decorated with earrings. O unblemished one! I think that their crimes in their earlier lives must have been severe. And I, possessing limited intelligence, must have done the same as well. O Janardana! That is the reason we are being repaid by Dharmaraja.57 O Varshneya! Good and evil deeds can never be destroyed. O Krishna! Look at them. They are in the best of ages. They possess beautiful breasts and stomachs. They have been born in noble lineages. They are modest. Their eyelashes, eyes and hair are dark. Confused by sorrow and grief, they are gaggling like a gaggle of geese. O Madhava! They are shrieking like cranes and are falling down. O Pundarikaksha! The faces of these women are like blooming lotuses. Their faces are perfect and the sun’s sharp rays are hurting them. O Vasudeva! My sons were as proud as crazy elephants, and jealous. Ordinary men are now looking at the women from the inner quarters.58 The shields are marked with the signs of one hundred moons. The standards have the complexion of the sun. The armour is golden. The breast-plates are made out of gold. O Govinda! Behold the blazing helmets of my sons as they lie down on the ground. They are like fires into which oblations have been offered. Duhshasana is lying down here, brought down by the brave Bhimasena, the slayer of enemies, with a club that killed heroes. His limbs are drenched with the blood that has been drunk. O Madhava! At the time when Droupadi was afflicted by the gambling, she had urged him on and he59 remembered that.60 O Janardana! To please his brother and Karna, when Panchali was won over by the dice in the assembly hall, he61 had spoken harsh words to her and to Sahadeva, Nakula and Arjuna. ‘O Panchali! You are our servant and our wife. Quickly enter our house.’ O Krishna! At that time, I had spoken to King Duryodhana. ‘O son! Shakuni has been grasped by the noose of death. Abandon him. O extremely stupid one! Understand that your maternal uncle loves a conflict. O son! Swiftly abandon him and make peace with the Pandavas. O extremely stupid one! You do not comprehend. Bhimasena is intolerant. The sharp words that you have spoken are like inflicting iron arrows and flaming torches on an elephant.’ However, he62 was cruel and proud and struck with words that were like stakes. He released his poison, like a snake towards bulls. Duhshasana is lying down here, stretching out his arms. He has been killed by Bhimasena, like a giant bull by a lion. Bhimasena was extremely intolerant and did something that was extremely gruesome. In the battle, he angrily drank Duhshasana’s blood.”’

  Chapter 1320(19)

  ‘Gandhari said, “O Madhava! This son of mine, Vikarna, was revered as being wise. He was slain and is lying down on the ground. Bhima did this one h
undred times. O Madhusudana! Vikarna is lying down in the midst of some elephants. He looks like the sun in the autumn sky, surrounded by dark-blue clouds. His hands bore the marks from wielding a giant bow and are encased in finger-guards. Why are they being mangled by vultures now? O Madhava! His ascetic wife is trying to ward off the vultures that are after meat. But though she is continually trying, the child is incapable of warding them off. O bull among men! Vikarna was brave and young and a leader of troops. He was used to happiness. He deserved happiness. O Madhava! He is lying down in the dust. In the encounter, his inner organs have been mangled by barbed arrows, hollow arrows and iron arrows. However, Lakshmi has still not abandoned this best of the Bharata lineage. Durmukha did not retreat and is lying down slain, after killing large numbers of the enemy in the battle. He has been killed by the brave one63 in the encounter, by one who accomplished his pledge. O Krishna! Half of his face has been eaten up by carnivorous beasts. O son! But you are shining more brightly, like the moon on the seventh lunar day. O Krishna! With a face like this, how could this brave one be brought down in the battle? How could my son be slain by the enemy and made to bite the dust? O amiable one! No one was capable of standing before Durmukha. He had conquered the world of the gods. How could he have been slain by the enemy? O Madhusudana! Chitrasena has been slain and is lying down on the ground. Look at this son of Dhritarashtra’s. He was the best of archers. He is still adorned in colourful garlands and ornaments. Grief-stricken young women are weeping and are seated around him, together with large numbers of predatory beasts. The sound of the weeping of women mixes with the roars of carnivorous beasts. O Krishna! This seems to be an extraordinary and wonderful sight to me. The young Vivimshati was a leader of troops and was always served by the best of women. O Madhava! He is lying down in the mud and the dust now. The brave one was slaughtered in the encounter and his armour was shattered by arrows. More than twenty vultures have surrounded Vivimshati now. In the encounter, the brave one penetrated the Pandava formation. Having penetrated, he is now lying down, like a virtuous man. O Krishna! Look at Vivimshati. His face has a smile. He possesses an excellent nose and excellent eyebrows. He is like the lord of the stars.64 Vasava’s women have surrounded that prosperous one.65 He seems to be sporting with gandharvas and thousands of celestial maidens. Duhsaha was brave and the ornament of assemblies. He was the one who slew brave soldiers. He was the one who destroyed the enemy. What about him? Duhsaha’s body is completely covered by arrows. He looks like the slope of a mountain, covered by blossoming karnikara trees. His radiant garlands are golden. His armour is blazing. Though he is dead, Duhsaha looks like Mount Shveta, when it is ablaze.”’

  Chapter 1321(20)

  ‘Gandhari said, “O Madhava! O Dasharha! He was as proud and haughty as a lion.66 He was said to possess one-and-a-half times the qualities, strength and valour of his father and you. He single-handedly penetrated the extremely impenetrable battle formation of my son. He was the one who caused death to others, but has himself come under the subjugation of death. O Krishna! He was Krishna’s67 son and was infinitely energetic. I see that though Abhimanyu has been slain, his radiance has not diminished. This daughter of Virata’s68 is the daughter-in-law of the wielder of Gandiva. This distressed child is sorrowing over her brave husband. The unblemished one is grieving. O Krishna! With her husband dead, the wife, Virata’s daughter, has approached him and is wiping his face with her hands. The neck of Subhadra’s son has three lines69 and the face above it is like a blooming lotus. The illustrious one70 is inhaling its fragrance. The beautiful one is desirable in her beauty and is embracing him. She used to be bashful earlier. But she has now lost her senses, as if she has drunk madhvika liquor. O Krishna! She has removed the golden armour and is glancing at his body, covered with wounds. O Krishna! The child is glancing at him and speaking to you. ‘O Pundarikaksha! This one had eyes like yours and has been brought down. O unblemished one! He was your equal in strength, valour and energy. He was your equal in beauty. But he has been brought down and is lying down on the ground. He was extremely delicate and was used to lying down on the skins of ranku deer. His body is on the ground now. Does it not cause torment? With armlets, his hands are like the trunks of elephants, hardened from bowstrings. As he is lying down, with golden bracelets, those large arms are outstretched. He is certainly sleeping happily, tired out through many kinds of exertion. As I am lamenting in grief, he is not speaking to me at all. Where has the noble one gone, abandoning the noble Subhadra, his fathers, who are like the gods, and the grief-stricken me?’ She has placed his head on her lap, as if he is still alive, and is removing the blood-smeared hair with her hands. She is asking, ‘You are Vasudeva’s sister’s son. You are the son of the wielder of Gandiva. In the midst of the battle, how could those maharathas slay you? Shame on the perpetrators of that cruel deed—Kripa, Karna, Jayadratha, Drona and Dronayani.71 They have caused this hardship. Did all those bulls among rathas not possess hearts? They surrounded a child and killed him and brought me this sorrow. The Pandavas and the Panchalas were looking. Though he possessed protectors, how was that brave one killed, as if he had no protectors? On seeing that he was killed by many, as if he had no protector, how is the brave Pandava,72 tiger among men, still alive? Without the lotus-eyed one, how will the Parthas obtain any delight from getting this large kingdom or from the defeat of their enemies? You have earned worlds through your weapons, your dharma and your self-control. Let me swiftly follow you there and protect me there. It is always extremely difficult to die before one’s time has come. I am extremely unfortunate. Despite seeing you slain in the battle, I am still alive. O tiger among men! You have gone to the world of the ancestors. In a gentle and smiling voice, which beautiful one will you greet there, as if she were I? In heaven, there is no doubt that you will crush the hearts of the apsaras, with your great beauty and your smiling words. O Subhadra’s son! When you attain those auspicious worlds and meet the apsaras and spend time in pleasure with them, remember the good deeds that I did. O brave one! You were destined to spend only six months of your life with me.73 In the seventh month, you have confronted your death.’ As she is speaking these miserable and pointless words, the women of the Matsya king’s74 lineage are pulling Uttara away. Having pulled the grief-stricken Uttara away, they are themselves overcome with sorrow, on seeing that Virata has been killed. They are weeping and lamenting. He is lying down, covered with blood, mangled by Drona’s arrows. Virata is being torn apart by vultures, jackals and crows. Those dark-eyed ones are helpless and distressed and are incapable of restraining those birds from tearing Virata apart. Those women have been scorched by the sun and are exhausted from their endeavours. They are pale and their bodies have lost their beauty. Look at the children who have been killed—Uttara,75 Abhimanyu, Sudakshina from Kamboja76 and the handsome Lakshmana. O Madhava! Behold. They are lying down in the forefront of the warriors.”’

  Chapter 1322(21)

  ‘Gandhari said, “This Vaikartana was a maharatha and great archer. He is lying down in the battle, as if a blazing fire has been pacified through Partha’s energy. Behold Vaikartana Karna. He was one who slew many atirathas. However, he has been brought down and is lying down on the ground, his limbs covered with blood. The great archer and maharatha harboured an enmity for a long time and was intolerant. The brave one has been slain in the battle by the wielder of Gandiva and is lying down. When my maharatha sons fought with the Pandavas and terrified them, they placed him at their head, like elephants with a leader of the herd. He was like a tiger in the battle, against the lion Savyasachi. He has been brought down, like an elephant by a crazy elephant. O tiger among men! When that brave one has been killed in the battle, his wives have assembled and have surrounded him, with their hair dishevelled. They are weeping. Dharmaraja Yudhishthira was always anxious about him. Because of his worry, he could not sleep for thirteen years. The enemy could not assail him in a battle, like foes against Maghavan. His heat was like that of the fire a
t the time of the destruction of a yuga. He was as steady as the Himalayas. O Madhava! The brave one was the refuge for Dhritarashtra’s son. He has been slain and is lying down on the ground, like a tree shattered by a storm. Behold Karna’s wife, Vrishasena’s mother. She has fallen down on the ground and is lamenting and weeping in piteous tones. ‘It is certain that the preceptor’s curse followed you.77 That is the reason the earth swallowed up the wheel of your chariot. Then, in the midst of the enemy in the battle, Dhananjaya’s arrow severed your head.’ Alas! Shame! When Sushena’s mother78 has seen the mighty-armed Karna, with gold-decorated armour plates and who was never dispirited, she has fallen down, senseless. She is extremely miserable and is weeping. There is little left of the great-souled one. The predatory beasts have devoured his body. It is not a pleasant sight and is inauspicious, like the moon on the fourteenth day of krishnapaksha. She is writhing on the ground, where she has fallen. She is distressed and has arisen again. She is inhaling the fragrance of Karna’s face. Tormented because her sons have been killed, she is weeping.”’