manes! What, O Keshava, can be a
sadder spectacle for me to behold than that presented by those ladies of
fair forms who have assumed such an aspect? Without doubt, I must have
perpetrated great sins in my former lives, since I am beholding, O
Keshava, my sons and grandsons and brothers all slain by foes.' While
indulging in such lamentations in grief, Gandhari's eyes fell upon her son
(Duryodhana)."

17

Vaishampayana said, "Beholding Duryodhana, Gandhari, deprived of her
senses by grief, suddenly fell down on the earth like an uprooted
plantain tree. Having regained her senses soon, she began to weep,
repeatedly uttering loud wails at the sight of her son lying on the bare
ground, covered with blood. Embracing her son, Gandhari indulged in
piteous lamentations for him. Stricken with grief, and with senses
exceedingly agitated, the Kuru queen exclaimed, 'Alas, O son! Alas, O son!'
Burning with sorrow, the queen drenched with her tears the body of her
son, possessed of massive and broad shoulders, and adorned with garlands
and collar. Addressing Hrishikesha who stood near, she said, 'On the eve
of this battle, O puissant one, that has exterminated this race, this
foremost of kings, O thou of Vrishnis race, said unto me, "In this
internecine battle, O mother, wish me victory!" When he had said these
words, I myself, knowing that a great calamity had come upon us, told him
even this, tiger among men, "Thither is victory where righteousness is.
And since, son, thy heart is set on battle, thou wilt, without doubt,
obtain those regions that are attainable by (the use of) weapons (and
sport there) like a celestial." Even these were the words that I then
said unto him. I did not then grieve for my son. I grieve, however, for
the helpless Dhritarashtra bereaved of friends and kinsmen. Behold, O
Madhava, my son, that foremost of warriors, wrathful, skilled in weapons,
and irresistible in battle, sleeping on the bed of heroes. Behold the
reverses brought about by Time. This scorcher of foes that used of old to
walk at the head of all crowned persons now sleepeth on the dust. Without
doubt, the heroic Duryodhana, when he sleeps on that bed which is the
hero's hath obtained the most unattainable end. Inauspicious jackals are
now delighting that prince asleep on the hero's bed, who was formerly
delighted by the fairest of ladies sitting round him. He who was formerly
encircled by kings vying with one another to give him pleasu