batch.motif.hindu-mahabharata-dutt-gutenberg-l5963-l6113
---
record_id: batch.motif.hindu-mahabharata-dutt-gutenberg-l5963-l6113
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
passage_locator:
label: BOOK X / KARNA-BADHA / BOOK XI / SRADDHA; lines 5963-6113
start: '5963'
end: '6113'
translation: Maha-bharata
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: ''
summary: After Duryodhan's death concludes the war, Dhrita-rashtra, Gandhari, Pritha,
Vidura, the Kuru women, and citizens go from Hastina to the battlefield. The widowed
and bereaved women discard ornaments, wail, and encounter a battlefield covered
with corpses, weapons, carrion animals, and demonic corpse-feeders. Gandhari laments
to Krishna over the slain warriors and finally sees Duryodhan, whereupon she collapses
senseless.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: The passage states that Duryodhan's death concludes the war and is followed
by women's lamentation and funerals for deceased warriors.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: Dhrita-rashtra asks for his royal car to be yoked so he may go to the silent
battlefield to meet his princes.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: Gandhari, Pritha, widowed princesses, and childless women gather and leave
the palace with grief.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: obs:4
text: The royal women cast aside gems and jewels, loosen their robes and hair, and
pass publicly through the city despite formerly living in seclusion.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:5
text: People of many trades leave the city with the monarch, and the grief is described
as filling the air and sky like the end of a Yuga and the nearness of the world's
end.
category: setting
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:6
text: The battlefield is described as covered with skulls, clotted hair, streams
of gore, limbs, elephants, horses, slain chiefs, headless trunks, and severed
heads.
category: setting
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:7
text: Jackals, vultures, ravens, pisachas, rakshas, and wolves are described as
feeding on or tearing at the bodies of the slain.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:8
text: The Kuru women see sons, fathers, brothers, and husbands among the dead, wail,
falter, sink to the ground, and faint in grief.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:9
text: Gandhari speaks to Krishna and describes widowed queens, mothers embracing
slaughtered children, and widows bending over husbands.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:10
text: Gandhari sees Duryodhan, is struck by anguish, and falls senseless to the
earth.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Dhrita-rashtra
description: Ancient Kuru monarch, father of a hundred sons, now sonless and sorrow-stricken.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Gandhari
description: Queen of the Kuru house, sorrow-laden, standing on the battlefield
and lamenting to Krishna; she collapses when she sees Duryodhan.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:8
- ev:10
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: Pritha
description: Ancient Pritha accompanies Gandhari and the other bereaved women.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: Vidura
description: Gentle Vidura comforts the women and places them within their chariots.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: Kuru women, widowed queens, and bereaved dames
description: Weeping widowed princesses, childless women, and Kuru household women
who go to the battlefield and lament their slain kin.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:7
- ev:8
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: Krishna
description: The figure addressed by Gandhari during her lament on the battlefield.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- ev:10
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: Slain warriors and Kuru kin
description: Dead sons, fathers, brothers, husbands, kings, heroes, elephants, steeds,
and car-borne chiefs lying across the battlefield.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:7
- ev:9
- id: fig:8
name_or_label: Duryodhan
description: Gandhari's son whose death has concluded the war; Gandhari sees him
among the dead and collapses.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:10
- id: fig:9
name_or_label: Corpse-feeding animals and beings
description: Jackals, vultures, ravens, wolves, pisachas, and rakshas present among
the battlefield corpses.
role_refs:
- role:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
roles:
- id: role:1
label: bereaved monarch
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: Dhrita-rashtra is described as sonless and sorrow-stricken and travels to
meet his dead princes.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: role:2
label: principal lamenting queen and mother
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: Gandhari stands on the battlefield, laments to Krishna, and collapses when
she sees Duryodhan.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- ev:10
- id: role:3
label: comforter and organizer of departure
assigned_to:
- fig:4
basis: Vidura comforts the women and places them within chariots before leaving
the palace hall.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: role:4
label: bereaved female mourners
assigned_to:
- fig:3
- fig:5
basis: Pritha and the Kuru women accompany Gandhari, weep, discard ornaments, go
to the battlefield, and mourn slain relatives.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:7
- ev:8
- id: role:5
label: addressee of lament
assigned_to:
- fig:6
basis: Gandhari directs her lament and observations about the dead and the widows
to Krishna.
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- ev:10
- id: role:6
label: slain kin and warriors
assigned_to:
- fig:7
- fig:8
basis: The dead include sons, fathers, brothers, husbands, kings, heroes, and Duryodhan
on the battlefield.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:7
- ev:10
- id: role:7
label: corpse-feeding battlefield beings
assigned_to:
- fig:9
basis: Animals and demonic beings are described as feeding on blood and bodies or
tearing corpses.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: royal car to the battlefield
literal_form: Dhrita-rashtra's royal car yoked for the journey to the silent field
of war.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: sym:2
label: discarded ornaments and loosened hair
literal_form: Gems and jewels cast aside, loose robes, and loose tresses of the
royal women.
associated_figures:
- fig:5
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: sym:3
label: red battlefield of dismembered dead
literal_form: A plain strewn with skulls, clotted tresses, gore, limbs, headless
trunks, and severed heads.
associated_figures:
- fig:7
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: sym:4
label: corpse-feeding birds, beasts, and spirits
literal_form: Jackals, vultures, ravens, wolves, pisachas, and rakshas among the
dead.
associated_figures:
- fig:9
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: sym:5
label: weapons and royal ornaments among corpses
literal_form: Shining mail, jewels, bangles, garlands, lances, clubs, swords, bows,
quivers, maces, and swords still with the slain.
associated_figures:
- fig:7
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: sym:6
label: end of Yuga and nearing end of the world
literal_form: The collective sorrow is compared to the end of a mortal Yuga and
the nearness of the world's end.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:5
taxonomy_refs:
- chaos
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Departure from Hastina after the war
summary: Dhrita-rashtra orders his car, Gandhari, Pritha, Vidura, the Kuru women,
and citizens leave Hastina in public grief for the battlefield.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:4
- fig:5
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
- sym:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: scene:2
label: Encounter with the corpse-strewn battlefield
summary: The mourners enter a battlefield covered with dead warriors, dismembered
bodies, blood, animals, and demonic corpse-feeders.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:5
- fig:7
- fig:9
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
- id: scene:3
label: Gandhari's lament to Krishna
summary: Gandhari speaks to Krishna, pointing out widowed queens, mothers with slaughtered
children, widows over husbands, fallen heroes, ornaments, and weapons across the
plain.
figure_refs:
- fig:2
- fig:5
- fig:6
- fig:7
symbol_refs:
- sym:3
- sym:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- ev:9
- id: scene:4
label: Gandhari sees Duryodhan
summary: Gandhari's wandering gaze falls on Duryodhan; she is struck by sudden anguish
and collapses senseless.
figure_refs:
- fig:2
- fig:6
- fig:8
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: post-battle funeral lament by bereaved women
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The passage centers on women and royal kin going to the battlefield after
Duryodhan's death to lament sons, fathers, brothers, husbands, and fallen warriors
before funerary rites.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:7
- ev:8
confidence: high
cautions: The passage introduces funeral rites but this excerpt emphasizes lamentation
and the battlefield visit rather than detailed ritual procedure.
- id: motif:2
label: royal seclusion overturned by grief
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Women formerly hidden from public view leave the palace, discard ornaments,
loosen robes and hair, and pass through the city in open mourning.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
confidence: high
cautions: The interpretation is limited to the explicit social reversal of seclusion
and adornment in the passage.
- id: motif:3
label: battlefield as corpse-feeding deathscape
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The battlefield is populated by dismembered bodies, carrion animals, and
demonic beings feeding on or tearing corpses.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
confidence: high
cautions: No afterlife journey or judgment scene is described in this excerpt.
- id: motif:4
label: communal grief imagined as world-ending disorder
taxonomy_refs:
- chaos
basis: The sorrow of the departing city is explicitly compared to the end of a Yuga
and the approaching end of the world.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
confidence: medium
cautions: The cosmic-end language appears as a simile for grief rather than as an
actual cosmological event.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: The passage itself frames collective postwar grief through an image of cosmic
dissolution by comparing the city's sorrow to the end of a Yuga and the nearing
end of the world.
claim_level: same_function
target: chaos / world-ending disorder motif family
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: This is an internal simile, not evidence of a separate mythic episode,
historical contact, or a literal apocalypse in the narrative.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: lines 5963-5973; Book XI heading and introduction
quote_or_summary: Book XI is titled Sraddha, or Funeral Rites; Duryodhan's death
concludes the war and is followed by women's lamentation and funerals of deceased
warriors.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source metadata; short summary used.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: Section I, opening stanzas
quote_or_summary: Dhrita-rashtra, described as father of a hundred sons and now
sonless, orders his royal car and summons Gandhari and the Kuru women to go to
the battlefield.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source metadata; short summary used.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: Section I, departure from palace and city
quote_or_summary: Vidura comforts the women and places them in chariots; the palace
women leave in grief, casting aside jewels and moving publicly with loose robes
and tresses.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source metadata; short summary used.
- id: ev:4
type: quote
locator: Section I, city-wide sorrow
quote_or_summary: '"And a universal sorrow filled the air and answering sky, / As
when ends the mortal''s Yuga and the end of world is nigh!"'
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source metadata; short quotation used.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: Section II, battlefield description
quote_or_summary: The field is described as red and ghastly, covered with skulls,
clotted hair, streams of gore, warrior limbs, elephants, horses, slain chiefs,
headless trunks, and severed heads.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source metadata; short summary used.
- id: ev:6
type: summary
locator: Section II, corpse-feeding beings
quote_or_summary: Jackals, vultures, ravens, pisachas, rakshas, and wolves are present
among the corpses, feeding on blood or tearing bodies.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source metadata; short summary used.
- id: ev:7
type: summary
locator: Section II, women among the dead
quote_or_summary: The Kuru women walk among the dead, recognize sons, fathers, brothers,
and husbands, wail, falter, sink to the ground, and faint in grief.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source metadata; short summary used.
- id: ev:8
type: summary
locator: Section II, Gandhari addresses Krishna
quote_or_summary: Gandhari speaks to Krishna, pointing to the widowed queens, mothers
embracing slaughtered children, and widows bending over husbands.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source metadata; short summary used.
- id: ev:9
type: summary
locator: Section II, Gandhari names fallen heroes and objects on the field
quote_or_summary: Gandhari names fallen heroes and notes mail, jewels, bangles,
garlands, lances, clubs, swords, bows, quivers, maces, and birds or wolves upon
the dead.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source metadata; short summary used.
- id: ev:10
type: summary
locator: Section III, Gandhari's lament for Duryodhan
quote_or_summary: Gandhari's gaze falls on Duryodhan; sudden anguish strikes her
and she falls senseless to the earth like a tree shaken by tempest.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/hindu/project-gutenberg/mahabharata-dutt.md
rights_note: Public domain source metadata; short summary used.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: medium
notes: The figures, scenes, and observations are directly grounded in the supplied
passage. Motif labels are descriptive; only the chaos/world-ending comparison
uses an available taxonomy reference, and it is explicitly a simile in the passage.
reviewer_status:
status: needs_review
reviewer: ''
reviewed_at: ''
notes: Machine-generated draft from OpenAI Batch; not human-reviewed.
extracted_by: openai_batch:gpt-5.5
extracted_at: '2026-04-28'
notes: |-
No external sources or unprovided taxonomy items were used.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:hindu-mahabharata-dutt-gutenberg__l5963-l6113
passage_sha256=1b1fd5ffbc91482c0988901e4b209362c80630ba8e668f3351d6badab153eda6