Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.44.45
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
-
anātha - vatsala
—
affectionate to the shelterless
Compound: anātha (shelterless) + vatsala (affectionate). The exact epithet that the Bhāgavatam more truly applies to Kṛṣṇa Himself (cf. dīna-anātha-vatsala). The wives praise Kaṁsa with words that belong to Bhagavān; bhakti's vocabulary travels even into demoniac eulogy.
-
dharma - jña
—
knower of dharma
Compound: dharma + jña (knower). Spoken of Kaṁsa. The Bhāgavatam preserves the elegiac convention; it does not editorialize. The reader is left to register the irony — Kaṁsa was famously not dharma-jña.
-
nihatāḥ vayam
—
we have been slain
Compound clause: ni + √han (passive participle) + vayam (we). The wives identify themselves with the husbands' death — 'we too are dead'. Cf. SB 1.9 — the inversion-of-self that grief produces.
-
sa gṛha prajāḥ
—
along with household and children
Compound: sa (with) + gṛha (house) + prajā (offspring). The complete unit. The Bhāgavatam shows demoniac kin-extinction as total — the violence does not stop at the husband; it absorbs the household. Asuric dynasties have a way of falling whole.
The daughter of Jarasandha and others who were married speak in two verses. "Along with our houses and offspring we also have been killed."
Each wife lamented in this way, or the wives of Kaṁsa lamented as in the verse, since they were the chief women lamenting. You were so compassionate (karuṇa). We have been slain along with our houses and children, by your dying. They say this out of great grief. Another version has tvayi āprahṛte ‘pi nihatāḥ: though you were hit only slightly, we are now dying.
They each addressed their dead husband, each among all of the lamented. Or the chief wives, those of Kaṁsa lamented. Hā indicates great difficulty. O most compassionate (karuṇā-natha)! O affectionate one (vatsala)! Or o compassionate one (karuṇa)! O affectionate to persons without shelter (anatha-vatsala). The addresses are progressively more excellent. By your complete death (āhate) we die. Or even slightly wounded, we, along with our children, die completely (nihatāḥ). What to speak of your dying.
- Where does grief currently idealize what was actually harmful?
- How do you honor what you loved without rewriting the truth?
'O kind one, protector of the helpless — by your being killed we too are killed.' The widows' lament uses the dharma-vocabulary that, if Kaṁsa had been worthy of it, would have prevented this scene. The vocabulary outlives the man.
My note
Source: vedabase.io