Shloka 29

कर्णेन युधिष्ठिरानीकविदारणम् / Karṇa’s Breach of Yudhiṣṭhira’s Battle-Line

Devanagari script

द्यां युगं युगचर्माणि संवर्तकबलाहकान्‌ । कालपृष्ठोडथ नहुष: कर्कोटकधनंजयौ,झ्ुलोकको भी जूएमें ही स्थान दिया। प्रलयकालके मेघोंको युगचर्म बनाया। कालपृष्ठ, नहुष, कर्कोटक, धनंजय तथा दूसरे-दूसरे नाग घोड़ोंके केसर बाँधनेकी रस्सी बनाये गये। दिशाओं और विदिशाओंने रथमें जुते हुए घोड़ोंकी बागडोरका भी रूप धारण किया

Transliteration

dyāṃ yugaṃ yugacarmāṇi saṃvartakabalāhakān | kālapṛṣṭho ’tha nahuṣaḥ karkoṭakadhanaṃjayau ||

Translation

Duryodhana sprach: „Der Himmel selbst wurde zum Joch; die Häute der Weltzeitalter wurden zu Jochriemen; und die großen Wolken der Auflösung dienten als Bindewerk. Kālapṛṣṭha, Nahuṣa, Karkoṭaka und Dhanaṃjaya—samt anderen Nāgas—wurden zu Seilen, um die Mähnen der Pferde zu befestigen, während die Himmelsrichtungen und Zwischenrichtungen die Gestalt der Zügel annahmen.“

Word by Word

द्याम्heaven, sky

युगम्yoke; age/epoch

युगचर्माणिyoke-leathers (straps made of hide for the yoke)

संवर्तकबलाहकान्the world-dissolution clouds (pralaya-clouds)

कालपृष्ठःKālapṛṣṭha (a nāga name; 'time-backed')

उतand; also

नहुषःNahuṣa (a nāga name)

कर्कोटकःKarkoṭaka (a nāga name)

धनंजयःDhanañjaya (a nāga name; also an epithet of Arjuna)

चand

Speaker

दुर्योधन उवाच

Characters & Entities

Duryodhana

Dyauḥ (Sky/Heaven)

Yuga (cosmic age, as metaphor)

Saṃvartaka Balāhaka (pralaya clouds)

Kālapṛṣṭha (nāga)

Nahuṣa (nāga)

Karkoṭaka (nāga)

Dhanaṃjaya (nāga)

Nāgas (serpents)

Diśas (directions)

Vidiśas (intermediate directions)

Yoke

Yoke-straps

Reins

Horse-mane fastening ropes

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse illustrates how a warrior-king’s rhetoric can inflate human conflict into cosmic inevitability. Ethically, it warns that grandiose self-justification and fascination with power can eclipse discernment (dharma-vicāra) and the duty to restrain violence.

What is happening in the narrative?

Duryodhana describes an imagined, cosmic-scale chariot harnessing: sky as yoke, pralaya-clouds as gear, nāgas as fastening ropes, and the directions as reins. It is a poetic intensification of the war’s magnitude and his own martial resolve.