Shloka 1083
Adhyāya 141 — Night duels: Śaineya and Bhūriśravas; Droṇi and Ghaṭotkaca; Bhīma and Duryodhana
तथा त्वां घातयिष्यामि पश्यत्सु सर्वराजसु । “नीच कुलमें पैदा हुए कर्ण! आ, मेरे साथ मल्ल-युद्ध कर ले। जैसे मैंने महान् बलशाली महाभोगी कीचकको पीस डाला था, उसी प्रकार इन समस्त राजाओंके देखते-देखते मैं तुझे अभी मौतके हवाले कर दूँगा”
tathā tvāṃ ghātayiṣyāmi paśyatsu sarvarājasu | nīcakuleṃ janitaḥ karṇa āgaccha mayā saha malla-yuddhaṃ kuru | yathā mayā mahān balavān mahābhogī kīcakaḥ pīṣitaḥ tathā teṣāṃ samastānāṃ rājñāṃ paśyatāṃ paśyatāṃ tvām adyaiva mṛtyor havāle kariṣyāmi ||
قال سنجيا: «هكذا سأقتلك والملوك جميعًا ينظرون. “يا كارنا، يا من وُلدتَ من سلالةٍ وضيعة، تعالَ وصارعني! كما سحقتُ كيتشاكا الجبار القويَّ المولع باللذّات، كذلك، أمام أعين هؤلاء الملوك جميعًا، سأُسلّمك إلى الموت في هذه اللحظة.”»
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage highlights how wartime rhetoric often mixes valor with adharma in speech: lineage-based insult and public humiliation are used to provoke combat. It implicitly contrasts true kṣatriya honor—measured by conduct and courage—with the ethical lapse of demeaning birth, showing how anger and pride can distort dharmic restraint even amid justified battle.
In the Drona Parva’s climactic fighting, a warrior issues a public challenge to Karna, demanding a wrestling bout and boasting that he will kill him in front of the assembled kings. To intensify the threat, he cites his earlier feat of killing Kīcaka, presenting it as proof that he can similarly ‘crush’ Karna and deliver him to death immediately.