भ्राता च मम बालो ऽयं गते लोकम् अमुं त्वयि ॥
अचिरेणैव कालेन विनश्येत न संशयः ॥
ताते ऽपि हि गते स्वर्गं विनष्टे च ममानुजे ॥
पिण्डः पितॄणां व्युच्छिद्येत् तत् तेषाम् अप्रियं भवेत् ॥
पित्रा त्यक्ता तथा मात्रा भ्रात्रा चाहम् असंशयम् ॥
दुःखाद् दुःखतरं प्राप्य म्रियेयम् अतथोचिता ॥
bhrātā ca mama bālo 'yaṃ gate lokam amuṃ tvayi ||
acireṇaiva kālena vinaśyeta na saṃśayaḥ ||
tāte 'pi hi gate svargaṃ vinaṣṭe ca mamānuje ||
piṇḍaḥ pitṝṇāṃ vyucchidyet tat teṣām apriyaṃ bhavet ||
pitrā tyaktā tathā mātrā bhrātrā cāham asaṃśayam ||
duḥkhād duḥkhataraṃ prāpya mriyeyam atathocitā ||
"And my brother is still a child; if you depart to that world, in a short time he will perish, there is no doubt. And if father too departs to heaven, and my younger brother perishes, the pinda to the ancestors will be cut off, and that will displease them. Abandoned by father, mother, and brother, I, without doubt, passing from grief to grief still worse, would die, unaccustomed to such a fate."
efb3844727e8 · published Jul 12, 2026, 5:09:57 PM UTC
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Here the daughter is concerned with the continuity of the lineage and the remembrance of the ancestors. Her fear about the 'pinda' is telling: the cessation of funeral offerings seems to her a calamity no less than bodily death — the bond of the living with the ancestors is sacred to her. Here is a living sense of duty toward those who have gone before: the pious person does not think of themselves as cut off from a lineage stretching into the past. It is also notable that the daughter portrays her fate as an orphan as a slow death, 'from grief to grief still worse.' Thus the verse shows that her sacrifice is not recklessness but the choice of the lesser calamity: better to give herself up now than to remain, condemning to ruin the lineage, the remembrance rites, and herself alike.