Shloka 23
कर्णेन सैन्यस्थापनं तथा नानायुद्धसमवायः
Karna Reforms the Host and Multiple Duels Converge
क्षत्रियस्य मल भैक्ष्यं ब्राह्मणस्याश्रुतं मलम् मलं॑ पृथिव्यां वाहीका: स्त्रीणां मद्रस्त्रियो मलम्,'क्षत्रियका मल है भिक्षावृत्ति, ब्राह्मणका मल है वेद-शास्त्रोंके विपरीत आचरण, पृथ्वीके मल हैं बाहीक और स्त्रियोंके मल हैं मद्रदेशकी स्त्रियाँ"
kṣatriyasya malaṃ bhaikṣyaṃ brāhmaṇasyāśrutaṃ malam | malaṃ pṛthivyāṃ vāhīkāḥ strīṇāṃ madrastriyo malam ||
Karna said: “For a kshatriya, the disgrace is living by alms; for a brahmin, the disgrace is conduct that goes against what is heard in the Vedas and sacred teaching. The disgrace upon the earth is the Vāhīkas, and the disgrace among women is the women of Madra.” In this harsh, polemical speech, Karna frames ‘mala’ (stain/shame) as a moral and social corruption: each group is judged by what most violates its proper dharma, and he weaponizes regional and gendered slurs to demean opponents in the heat of war.
कर्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse asserts that each social role has a defining dharma, and the deepest ‘stain’ is what most contradicts that role: a kshatriya abandoning self-reliant warrior duty for alms, and a brahmin acting against śruti-based discipline. However, the latter half shifts from ethical principle to wartime invective, showing how moral language can be used as a weapon to shame groups and opponents.
In the Karna Parva’s battle context, Karna is speaking in a confrontational tone. He delivers a biting list of ‘disgraces’ to demean certain peoples and, by implication, those associated with them—reflecting the escalating hostility and rhetorical aggression typical of the war books.