CHAPTER LXXXVI
(LAMENTATIONS OF KANSA'S WIVES)
VAISHAMPAYANA said: - Beholding their husband slain and fallen Kansa's wives encircled him like planets of decreasing lustre (1). Beholding their lion-like royal husband slain and lying down on earth his wives began to bewail (2). "O thou of large arms, a hero, ever observant of heroic vows like thyself, being slain, we all, being the wives of a heroe, have become friendless and all our hopes have been frustrated (3). O foremost of kings, seeing this thy ordained death we are plaintively bewailing along with our relatives (4). O highly powerful lord, thyself being dead and cast off by thee we have our roots cut off (5).
Alas! when stricken with sexual desire we will tremble in anger like creepers who will take us to the bed-room (6)? O gentle one, is it meet that the sun should scorch thy charming face full of breaths like a lotus without water (7)? O thou who wert ever fond of Kundalas! divested of Kundalas, thy ears, attached to thy neck, are not shining well (8). O heroe, where is that crown crested with jewels and effulgent like the sun that used to increase greatly the beauty of thy head (9)? Thyself repairng to the other world, how will these thy thousand wives, ever gracing thy inner apartment, pass their days poorly (10)? Chaste wives are never disappointed from their enjoying in the company of their husband nor are they forsaken by him; why dost thou then leave us behind (11)? Alas! Time is highly powerful; for although a death to thy enemies thou art being speedily taken away by Time who carries on his work in order (12). O lord, we are unworthy of sorrow and have been brought up by thee in happiness. Being deprived of our lord and miserly how shall we spend our days (13). A husband is the only refuge unto those women who care for their character. But the powerful Death has killed such a husband of ours (14). Possessed by widowhood in thy absence and sunk in the deep ocean of lamentations, where shall we repair, with hearts stricken with sorrow (15)? Alas! fickle is the movement of men. Sporting on thy lap we were spending our days with thee. Now in a moment we have been separated from thee (16). O thou the conferrer of honors, thyself meeting with this calamity, we have been visited by disasters. It seems, we all perpetrated a similar iniquity for we have all in the like manner, met with widowhood (17). Alas! We were all fond of thee and thou didst take care of us with heavenly enjoyments. Casting us off where dost thou go now (18)? O lord of the world, O giver of honors, O thou resembling a celestial, thou art our master who have been separated from their lord. O lord, we are bewailing like bird; it behoves thee to give us a reply (19). O lord sovereign, thy departure, making thy kinsmen sorrowful and thy wives bewail, appears (to us) as terribly hard (20). Forsooth it appears O lord, that the damsels of the other world are more beautiful, because, O heroe, thou hast departed leaving behind thy own people (21). What is the reason O heroe, that thou dost pay no heed to the lamentations of thy wives (22). Alas, the march of men to the other world is ruthless, because without caring for them they even forsake their own wives (23). It is better for women not to have husbands than beloved, heroic husbands, because they love the women of the celestial region and they too are fond of heroes (24.) Alas! carrying away imperceptibly such a heroic husband Death has pierced our very vitals (25). O lord of the world, having slain the army of Jarāsandha and vanquished the other enemies in battle why hast thou met with death at the hands of an ordinary man (26)? Alas! Fighting with Indra in a combat of arrows thou wert not defeated by the immortals. How hast thou been then slain by a mortal (27)? Having agitated, with a shower of arrows, the ocean that is incapable of being moved thou didst conquer Varuna the holder of noose, and take away all his riches (28). When Vāsava did not pour profuse showers, thou didst, for the citizens, bore through the clouds with thy arrows and bring down rain by force (29). By thy prowess all kings were humiliated and used to send thee the precious jewels and clothes (30). Alas, thy manliness was manifest unto thy enemies and thou wert like a god. How has then such a life-ending calamity befallen thee (31)? Thyself being slain O lord, we are passing by the name of widows. Although not mad we have become so and leave been assailed by death (32). O lord, if thou wert determined upon departing why hast thou then forgotten us? Would it have tired thee if thou hadst say it in mere words (33)? O lord, O king of Mathura, we bow unto thy feet in fear. Be thou propitiated and return from the distant land (34). O heroe, how dost thou lie down on grass and dust? Prostrating thyself on earth does not thy body feel any inconvenience (35)? Alas, who has inflicted on us this stroke of sleep? Who has ruthlessly struck the body of these women (36)? The woman, who has to survive, should weep and repent. Why should we weep when we are to follow our husband (37)?"
In the meantime trembling poorly and crying aloud "Where is my son? Where is my child?" Kansa's mother arrived there (38). Beholding her son like unto the moon shorn of its lustre her heart as if broke assunder and she repeatedly lost her consciousness (39). Beholding her son and exclaiming "Alas! I am undone !" she began to bewail along with her daughters-in-law (40). Placing on her lap the head of her son, that one, fond of sons, began to bewail plaintively saying "O my son, O thou the enhancer of the delight of thy kinsmen, O thou ever devoted to the vow of a heroe, why last thou departed so soon? O my son observant of vows, why art thou asleep before all men? The kings should never lie down on earth in this way (41-43). When in the days of yore all the Rākshasas assembled Rāvana, the foremost of the strong in all the worlds, uttered the following verse, spoken well of by the sages (44). Although I am of great strength and a destroyer of the immortals, a terrible and irresistible calamity will proceed to me from my kinsmen (45). And such a life-destroying great calamity will also proceed to my intelligent son from my relatives' (46). Thereupon weeping like unto a cow, separated from her calf, she said to her husband the old king Ugrasena (47). "Come and see, O pious king, this thy royal son is lying on the bed of a heroe like a mountain clapped by a thunderbolt (48). O king, you are to perform the obsequial rites of this thy son who has repaired to the abode of Death and attained to the state of a ghost (49). Kingdoms are worthy of being enjoyed by heroes and we have been defeated. Go and ask Krishna about Kansha's funeral rites (50). Enmity terminates with death-it ceases with the death of the enemy. His obsequial rites should therefore be performed. What offence has the dead body committed (51) ?"
Having said this to the Bhoja king with a heart laden with sorrow and casting her looks again on the face of her son Kansa's mother began to bewail anew, saying (52) "O king, what will thy wives do hereafter, who, even having obtained a husband like thee, have their desires frustrated (53)? How shall I now see thy aged father dried up under the subjection of Krishna like water in the pool (54)? O my son, I am thy mother, why dost thou not speak to me? Leaving behind thy beloved people thou hast departed to a distant land (55). O heroe, the inevitable Death has, against the knowledge of this unfortunate woman, taken away a son like thee well-read in moral laws (56). O the master of thy clan, thy servants, who were pleased with thy qualities on receiving honors and various presents from thee, are now weeping (57). O foremost of kings, O thou of large arms and great strength, rise up and save the people of thy house and other poor men (58)."
While the wives of Kansa, stricken with great misery, were thus bewailing the sun, smitten with evening rays, set in (59).
Source: https://archive.org/details/AProseEnglishTranslationOfHarivamsh
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