11.016
Pancharatra and Core: Gandhari observes the battlefield with the help of Krishna Dwaipayana's blessings and laments to Krishna regarding the horrors of the battlefield and regarding her slain sons and son-in-law.
Vaiśampāyana said.
After thus speaking, Gandhari beheld the unshorn one of the Kurus standing there, perceiving all with her divine sight.
She was devoted to her husband, greatly fortunate, practiced the same vow, endowed with intense austerity, and always spoke the truth.
Endowed with the boon of Kṛṣṇa, the great sage of meritorious deeds, and divine knowledge and strength, she lamented in various ways.
The intelligent lady saw, even from a distance as if it were close, the wondrous and terrifying battlefield of heroic men.
The area was covered with bones and hair, submerged in streams of blood, and scattered everywhere with thousands upon thousands of bodies.
The field was covered with the blood-stained bodies of elephants, horses, chariots, and warriors, as well as with headless and lifeless bodies and heaps of heads.
It was covered with the lifeless bodies of elephants, horses, men, and heroes, and was frequented by jackals, vultures, crows, herons, and crows.
It was a place that delighted the rākṣasas and man-eaters, filled with kuraras, resounding with both inauspicious and auspicious cries, and frequented by vultures.
Then, with Vyāsa's permission, King Dhṛtarāṣṭra and all the sons of Pāṇḍu, led by Yudhiṣṭhira, proceeded together.
The Kuru women, led by Vāsudeva (Kṛṣṇa) and the bereaved king, went to the battlefield.
When those women, whose husbands had been killed, reached Kurukṣetra, they saw their sons, brothers, fathers, and husbands lying dead there.
Indeed, they were being devoured by flesh-eaters, jackals, vultures, spirits, piśācas, rākṣasas, and various other night-wandering beings.
When the women saw the slaughter, which looked like Rudra’s play, they cried out and fell from their luxurious vehicles.
The women of Bharata, overwhelmed with grief, saw something unprecedented; some, without stumbling, fell upon the bodies, while others collapsed to the ground.
Among the weary and helpless, none retained consciousness; for the women of the Pāñcālas and Kurus, it was a truly pitiable situation.
When the daughter of Subala, who knew dharma, saw the very fierce battle resounding from all sides, filled with those whose minds were afflicted by sorrow.
Then, seeing the slaughter of the Kurus, she sorrowfully addressed the lotus-eyed supreme person and spoke these words.
O Mādhava, see these daughters-in-law of mine, O lotus-eyed one, whose husbands have been slain, with their hair disheveled, crying like female curlews.
But those women, having come together and remembering the best of the Bharatas, each rushed separately towards their sons, brothers, fathers, and husbands.
O mighty-armed one, the place was covered by heroic mothers whose sons had been killed, and in some places, it was filled with the wives of heroes whose husbands had been slain.
It was adorned by mighty warriors—Bhīṣma, Karṇa, Abhimanyu, Droṇa, Drupada, and Śalya—who shone like blazing fires.
It was completely adorned with gold, armours, coins, jewels, armlets, bracelets, and garlands belonging to the great-souled ones.
With spears hurled by heroic arms, iron clubs, pure and sharp swords, and bows with arrows.
In some places, there were groups of flesh-eaters standing together joyfully; elsewhere, some were playing, and others were lying down.
O hero, behold this kind of battlefield, O mighty one. As I see it, I am burning with grief, O Janardana.
O Madhusūdana, I never thought of the destruction of the Pāñcālas and Kurus as being like the slaughter of the five beings.
The divine birds and vultures, fierce, drag out those smeared with blood from their armors, and devour them by thousands.
Who can truly contemplate the fates of Jayadratha, Karṇa, Droṇa, Bhīṣma, and the destruction of Abhimanyu?
O Madhusudana, seeing those who should not have been killed lying slain, made food for vultures, herons, cranes, hawks, dogs, and jackals, I...
Behold these heroes, subdued by anger and under Duryodhana’s control, standing calmly like extinguished fires.
Those who were used to soft, clean, and suitable beds now, being deprived, lie today upon the bare ground.
Even as the panegyrists constantly praise and extol them at all times, the inauspicious and terrible beings among the auspicious ones hear various words.
Those heroes who once lay on beds, their bodies anointed with sandalwood and aloeswood, now lie in the dust.
The ornaments of those men are being snatched again and again by these inauspicious and terrible vultures, jackals, and crows, who howl repeatedly.
Those proud of battle, delighted, bear bows, arrows, yellow swords, and pure maces as if they were alive.
Many of beautiful color, struck by flesh-eaters, with eyes like a bull, lie adorned with green garlands.
Others, once more, embrace their maces and, with arms like clubs, lie facing them, like heroes lying with their beloved women.
O Janardana, others bear armours and pure weapons, and the flesh-eating creatures do not attack the living.
The golden, variegated garlands of the great souls, who were being dragged by the flesh-eaters, were scattered all around.
Thousands of these fierce jackals are pulling out the necklaces from the necks of the illustrious slain.
During all the latter nights, the bards who rejoiced were trained with praises and the most excellent services.
O tiger among the Vṛṣṇis, these noble women, afflicted by sorrow, are lamenting piteously, overwhelmed by grief and sorrow to a great extent.
O Keśava, the faces of the noble women, though withered, still shine beautifully like forests of red lotuses.
These women, having ceased from weeping, deeply meditating and completely overwhelmed, the Kuru women approach, afflicted by that very grief.
These are the sun-colored, golden-hued, and coppery faces, flushed with anger and tears, of the women of the Kurus.
Hearing the lamentation for the complete fulfillment of these women, the women do not comprehend each other's cries.
These heroic women, after sighing deeply, crying out and lamenting, trembling with pain, give up their lives.
Many women, seeing the bodies, cry out and lament; others, with their soft hands, strike their heads.
The earth appears covered and shining with heaps of fallen heads, hands, and all limbs, all intermingled together.
When the women, unaccustomed to such sights, see the headless, helpless bodies and the terrible rejoicers, they become bewildered at the headless bodies and the severed heads.
Placing their heads with their bodies, looking around in confusion, unable to see the other there, they said, 'This is not his,' and were distressed.
Their arms, thighs, feet, and other limbs, having been torn apart separately by arrows, as they try to join them, overcome by pain, these women faint again and again.
Some of the women of Bharata, seeing other men whose heads have been cut off and who have been devoured by beasts and birds, do not recognize their husbands.
O Madhusūdana, others strike heads with their hands, seeing their brothers, fathers, sons, and husbands slain by others.
The earth, covered with arms, swords, heads, and earrings, became unapproachable, its surface muddy with flesh and blood.
Those who were not previously accustomed to suffering, the blameless ones, now plunge into misery. The earth is covered with brothers, fathers, and sons.
O Janardana, behold the many groups of Dhritarashtra's daughters-in-law, all with beautiful hair, resembling herds of young maidens.
O Keśava, nothing seems more sorrowful to me than this: if all these women assume various forms, high and low.
"Certainly, O Keśava, I must have committed sin in previous births, for I see my sons, grandsons, and brothers slain." Thus, afflicted and lamenting, she saw her slain son.
