जलप्रदानिक पर्व — कर्ण की मृत्यु पर गान्धारी का विलाप

Gandhari said There the powerful Karna, that great bowman, lies prostrate on the earth. In battle he was like a burning fire. That fire, however, has now been put out by the power of Partha.

See, Vikartana's son Karna, after having killed many Atirathas, has been prostrated on the naked Earth and is covered with blood.

Wrathful and energetic, he was a great bowman and a powerful car-warrior. Killed in battle by holder of Gandiva, that hero now sleeps on the ground.

My sons, those powerful car-warriors, from fear of the Pandavas, fought, fled by Karna, like a heart of elephants with its leader standing first.

Alas, like a tiger killed by a lion, or an elephant by an infuriate elephant, that warrior has been killed in battle by Savyasachin.

collected together, O foremost of men, the wives of that warrior, with disheveled hairs and loud cried of grief, and sitting around that fallen hero.

Anxious about that warrior, king Yudhishthira the just could not sleep for thirteen years.

Incapable of being restrained by foes in battle like Indra himself who is invincible by enemies, Karna was like the all-destroying fire of dreadful flames at the end of a cycle, and immovable like Himavat himself.

That hero became the protector of Dhritarashtra's son, O Madhava! Alas killed, he now lies on the bare ground, like a tree struck down by the wind.

Behold, the wife of Karna and mother of Vrishasena, is bewailing piteously and crying and weeping and falling upon the ground.

Even now she exclaims-Forsooth your preceptors' curse has followed you. When the wheel of your car was sunk in the Earth, the cruel Dhananjaya cut off your head with a shaft.

That lady, the mother of Sushena, greatly stricken with woe and uttering cries of woe, is falling down, unconscious at the sight of the mighty-armed and brave Karna prostrated on the Earth, with his waist still encircled with a golden belt.

Feasting on the body of that illustrious hero, carnivorous animals, have reduced it greatly. This spectacle is indeed pitiable, like that of the moon on the fourteenth night of the darkfortnight.

Falling down on the ground the cheerless lady is rising up again. Filled with grief for the death of her son also, she comes and smelleth the face of her husband.