Jalapradanika Parva — Gandhari saw the battle-field with her spiritual eye

Vaishampayana said Having said so, Gandhari, though standing on that spot which was distant from the field of battle, saw with her spiritual eye, the slaughter of the Kurus.

Devoted to her lord, that highly blessed lady always practised high vows. Practising the severest penances, she was always truthful in her speech.

By virtue of the gift of the boon by the great Rishi Vyasa of pure deeds, she came by spiritual knowledge and power. The lady then piteously bewailed.

The highly intelligent Kuru dame saw, from a distance, but as if from a near point, that field of battle, terrible to look at and full of wonderful sights, of those foremost of warriors.

Strewn with bones and hair, and covered with streams of blood, that field was filled with thousands upon thousands of dead bodies on every side.

covered with the blood of elephants and horses and car-warriors and various warriors, it was filled with headless trunks and trunkless heads.

And it resounded with the cries of elephants and horses and men and women, and abounded with jackals and cranes and ravens and Kankas and crows.

And it was the sporting ground of Rakshasas living on human flesh. And it was filled with ospreys and vultures and resounded with the inauspicious yells of jackals.

Then at the command of Vyasa king Dhritarashtra and all the sons of Pandu led by Yudhishthira, with Vasudeva and all the Kuru ladies, went to the battle-field.

Having reached Kurukshetra, those widowed ladies beheld their killed their killed brothers and sons and sires and husbands lying on carth, as their bodies were being devoured by beasts of prey and wolves and ravens and crows and ghosts and Pishchas and Rakshasas and various other night-rangers.

Seeing that onslaught which resembled the spectacles seen on the sporting ground of Rudra, the ladies cried and quickly got down from their costly cars. were

Witnessing sights the like of which they had never before seen, the Bharata ladies felt their limbs to be deprived of strength and dropped down on the ground.

Others became so stupefied that they lost their consciousness. Indeed, the Panchala and the Kuru ladies plunged into indescribable distress.

Seeing that dreadful field of battle filled on all sides with the cries of those grief-stricken ladies, the daughter of Subala, acquainted with all forms of duty, addressed the louts-eyed, Keshava that foremost of all men. Beholding that universal destruction of the Kurus and filled with grief at the sight, she said,-'Look, O lotus-eyed Mahadeva, at these daughters-inlaw of mine! Deprived of their husbands they are with dishevelled hair, crying piteously like a flight of she-ospreys.

Seeing those dead bodies, they are remembering the great Bharata chiefs! They are running here and those in a body towards their sons and brothers and sires and husbands.

See, O mighty-armed one, the field is covered with mothers of heroes, all of whom, however, have been deprived of children! There, that part is covered with wives of heroes, who have however, been bereaved of their husbands.

See the field of battle is adorned with those foremost of men, viz., Bhishma and Karna and Abhimanyu and Drona and Drupada and Shalya.

See it is adorned also with the golden coasts of mail, and with the precious gems, of high-souled warriors, and with their Angadas and Keyuras and garlands.

Behold, it is covered with darts and spikes discharged by heroic hands, and swords and various kinds of keen arrows and bows.

Beasts of prey, in a body, are standing or sporting or lying down according to their pleasure.

Behold, O powerful hero, the field of battle in this state! At this sight, O Janarddana, I am burning with grief.

With the destruction of the Panchalas and the Kurus, O slayer of Madhu, I think, the five elements have been destroyed.

Dreadful vultures and thousands of others birds, are dragging those bodies stained with blood and seizing them by their armour, are devouring them.

Who is there that could even imagine the death of such heroes as Jayadratha, Karna, Drona, Bhishma and Abhimanyu.

Alas, though incapable of being killed they have yet been killed, O slayer of Madhu! Behold, vultures, Kankas, ravens hawks, dogs and jackals are feasting upon them.

There, those foremost of men, who fought on Duryodhana's side, and went to the field in anger and now lying like extinguished fires.

All of them deserve sleeping on soft and clean beds, But alas, in a distressful condition they are sleeping to-day on the naked ground.

Recounting their praises poets used to place them before at proper times. They are now listening to the fierce and inauspicious yells of jackals.

Those great heroes who used formerly to sleep on rich beds with their limbs smeared with sandal-paste and powered alone, are now sleeping on the dust.

These vultures, wolves and ravens are now their ornaments. Uttering again and again inauspicious and fierce cries, those creatures are now dragging their bodies.

Those heroes, look even cheerful, now, and have still beside them their keen arrows, welltempered swords, and bright maces, as if life has not yet left them!

Many leading heroes, possessed of beauty and fair complexions and bedecked with garlands of gold, are sleeping on the ground! Look beasts of prey are dragging and tearing them.

Some with massive arms, are sleeping with maces under them as if those were beloved wives.

Others with armour on, are holding in their hands their effulgent weapons. Beasts of prey are not tearing him, O Janarddana, thinking them to be still alive.

The beautiful golden garlands on the necks of other illustrious heroes, as the latter and being dragged by carnivorous creatures, are scattered about on all sides.

There, thousands of fierce wolves, are dragging the golden chains sound the necks of many illustrious but dead heroes.

Many, whom clever bards formerly used with their hymns and panegyris, to delight every morning, are now surrounded by fair ladies stricken with grief and weeping and crying around them in distress, O foremost of Vrishni's race.

The faces of those beautiful ladies, O Keshava, though pale, still shine like red lotuses.

Those Kuru ladies have ceased weeping with their followers and companions. They are all filled with anxiety. Bewilders with sorrows, they are running here and there.

The faces of those fair ladies have, with weeping and ire, become effulgent as the morning sun, or gold, or burnished copper.

Hearing each other's unmeaning lamentations those ladies, on account of the loud cries of woe coming from every side, are unable to understand each other's meaning.

Some amongst them, heavily sighing and repeatedly bewailing, are stupefied by grief and are giving up their lives.

Many of them, seeing the bodies (of their sons, husbands, or sires,) are weeping and lamcnting. Others and striking their heads with their own soft hands.

The Earth, filled with heaps of heads and hands and other limbs, the sights of destruction, looks resplendent.

Secing many headless trunks of great beauty, and many heads without trunks, those fair ladies and lying unconscious on the ground for a long while.

Joining particular heads with particular trunks, those ladies, beside themselves with grief, are again discovering their mistakes, and saying,-This is not this one's—and are weeping more bitterly.

Other, uniting arms and thighs and feet, cut off with arrows, are grieving and losing their consciousness repeatedly.

Some amongst the Bharata ladies, beholding the bodies of their husbands, mangled by animals and birds and shorn of heads,-are not recognising them.

Others, seeing their brothers, sires, sons, and husbands killed by enemies, are, O slayer of Madhu, striking their heads with their own hands.

Covered with flesh and blood, the Earth has become impassable with arms still holding swords and with heads adorned with ear-rings.

Seeing the field covered with the dead bodies of their brothers and sires, and sons, those faultless ladies, who had never before experienced the least distress, are now plunged into indescribable misery.

Look, O Janarddana, at those Dhritarashtra's daughters-in-law, resembling a number of beautiful fillies adorned with excellent manes.

O Keshava, is there a more sorrowful sight for me to see then that presented by those ladies of fair forms who are put into such a miserable plight? I must, forsooth, have perpetrated great sins in my previous existence, since I am beholding, O Keshava, my sons and grandsons and brothers all killed by foes.' While thus bewailing Gandhari saw the dead body of her son Duryodhana.

O Keshava, is there a more sorrowful sight for me to see then that presented by those ladies of fair forms who are put into such a miserable plight? I must, forsooth, have perpetrated great sins in my previous existence, since I am beholding, O Keshava, my sons and grandsons and brothers all killed by foes.' While thus bewailing Gandhari saw the dead body of her son Duryodhana.