Chapter 31 - Lamentations of Kamsa’s Wives

1. Vaishampayana said:—Beholding their husband slain and fallen Kamsa’s wives encircled him like planets of decreasing lustre.

2. Beholding their lion-like royal husband slain and lying down on earth his wives began to bewail. "

3. O you of large arms, a hero, ever observant of heroic vows like thyself, being slain, we all, being the wives of a hero, have become friendless and all our hopes have been frustrated.

4. O foremost of kings, seeing this your ordained death we are plaintively bewailing along with our relatives.

5. O highly powerful lord, thyself being dead and cast off by you we have our roots cut off.

6. Alas! When stricken with sexual desire we will tremble in anger like creepers. Who will take us to the bed-room?

7. O gentle one, is it meet that the sun should scorch your charming face full of breaths like a lotus without water?

8. O you who were ever fond of Kundalas! Divested of Kundalas, your ears, attached to your neck, are not shining well.

9. O hero, where is that crown crested with jewels and effulgent like the sun that used to increase greatly the beauty of your head?

10. Thyself repairing to the other world, how will these your thousand wives, ever gracing your inner apartment, pass their days poorly?

11. Chaste wives are never disappointed from their enjoying in the company of their husband nor are they forsaken by him;why dost you then leave us behind?

12. Alas! Time is highly powerful; for although a death to your enemies you are being speedily taken away by Time who carries on his work in order.

13. O lord, we are unworthy of sorrow and have been brought up by you in happiness. Being deprived of our lord and miserly how shall we spend our days.

14. 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.

15. Possessed by widowhood in your absence and sunk in the deep ocean of lamentations, where shall we repair, with hearts stricken with sorrow?

16. Alas! fickle is the movement of men. Sporting on your lap we were spending our days with you. Now in a moment we have been separated from you.

17. O you 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.

18. Alas! We were all fond of you and you didst take care of us with heavenly enjoyments. Casting us off where dost you go now?

19. O lord of the world, O giver of honors, O you resembling a celestial, you are our master who have been separated from their lord. O lord, we are bewailing like hind;it behoves you to give us a reply.

20. O lord sovereign, your departure, making your kinsmen sorrowful and your wives bewail, appears (to us) as terribly hard.

21. Forsooth it appears O lord, that the damsels of the other world are more beautiful, because, O hero, you have departed leaving behind your own people.

22. What is the reason O hero, that you dost pay no heed to the lamentations of your wives.

23. Alas, the march of men to the other world is ruthless, because without caring for them they even forsake their own wives.

24. 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.

25. Alas! carrying away imperceptibly such a heroic husband Death has pierced our very vitals.

26. O lord of the world, having slain the army of Jarasandha and vanquished the other enemies in battle why hast you met with death at the hands of an ordinary man?

27. Alas! Fighting with Indra in a combat of arrows you were not defeated by the immortals. How hast you been then slain by a mortal?

28. Having agitated, with a shower of arrows, the ocean that is incapable of being moved you didst conquer Varuna the holder of the noose, and take away all his riches.

29. When Vasava did not pour profuse showers, you didst, for the citizens, bore through the clouds with your arrows and bring down rain by force.

30. By your prowess all kings were humiliated and used to send you the precious jewels and clothes.

31. Alas, your manliness was manifest unto your enemies and you were like a god. How has then such a life-ending calamity befallen you?

32. Thyself being slain O lord, we are passing by the name of widows. Although not mad we have become so and have been assailed by death.

33. O lord, if you were determined upon departing why hast you then forgotten us? Would it have tired you if you hadst say it in mere words?

34. O lord, O king of Mathura, we bow unto your feet in fear. Be you propitiated and return from the distant land.

35. O hero, how dost you lie down on grass and dust? Prostrating thyself on earth does not your body feel any inconvenience?

36. Alas, who has inflicted on us this stroke of sleep? Who has ruthlessly struck the body of these women?

37. The woman, who has to survive, should weep and repent. Why should we weep when we are to follow our husband?"

38. In the meantime trembling poorly and crying aloud "Where is my son? Where is my child?" Kamsa’s mother arrived there.

39. Beholding her son like unto the moon shorn of its lustre her heart as if broke assunder and she repeatedly lost her consciousness.

40. Beholding her son and exclaiming "Alas! I am undone!" she began to bewail along with her daughters-in-law.

41-43. Placing on her lap the head of her son, that one, fond of sons, began to bewail plaintively saying "O my son, O you the enhancer of the delight of your kinsmen, O you ever devoted to the vow of a hero, why hast you departed so soon? O my son observant of vows, why art you asleep before all men? The kings should never lie down on earth in this way.

44. When in the days of yore all the Rakshasas assembled Ravana, the foremost of the strong in all the worlds, uttered the following verse, spoken well of by the sages. '

45. Although I am of great strength and a destroyer of the immortals, a terrible and irresistable calamity will proceed to me from my kinsmen.

46. And such a life-destroying great calamity will also proceed to my intelligent son from my relatives'".

47. Thereupon weeping like unto a cow, separated from her calf, she said to her husband the old king Ugrasena. "

48. Come and see, O pious king, this your royal son is lying on the bed of a hero like a mountain clapped by a thunderbolt.

49. O king, you are to perform the obsequial rites of this your son who has repaired to the abode of Death and attained to the state of a ghost.

50. Kingdoms are worthy of being enjoyed by heroes and we have been defeated. Go and ask Krishna about Kamsha’s funeral rites.

51. 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?"

52. Having said this to the Bhoja king with a heart laden with sorrow and casting her looks again on the face of her son Kamsa’s mother began to bewail anew, saying: "

53. O king, what will your wives do hereafter, who, even having obtained a husband like you, have their desires frustrated?

54. How shall I now see your aged father dried up under the subjection of Krishna like water in the pool?

55. O my son, I am your mother, why dost you not speak to me? Leaving behind your beloved people you have departed to a distant land.

56. O hero, the inevitable Death has, against the knowledge of this unfortunate woman, taken away a son like you well-read in moral laws.

57. O the master of your clan, your servants, who were pleased with your qualities on receiving honors and various presents from you, are now weeping.

58. O foremost of kings, O you of large arms and great strength, rise up and save the people of your house and other poor men."

59. While the wives of Kamsa, stricken with great misery, were thus bewailing the sun, smitten with evening rays, set in.