Shloka 8

अध्याय ९ — कर्णस्य प्रहारः, योधयुग्मनियोजनम्, शैनेय-कैकेययोर्युद्धविन्यासः

Devanagari script

इस प्रकार श्रीमह्ााभारत कर्णपर्वमें धृतराष्ट्रवाक्यविषयक आठवाँ अध्याय पूरा हुआ,वज्ञसारमयं नूनं हृदयं दुर्भिदं मम । यच्छुत्वा पुरुषव्याप्र॑ हतं कर्ण न दीर्यते निश्चय ही मेरा हृदय वज्रके सारतत्त्वका बना हुआ है, अतः दुर्भद्य है; तभी तो पुरुषसिंह कर्णको मारा गया सुनकर भी यह विदीर्ण नहीं हो रहा है

Transliteration

vajrasāramayaṃ nūnaṃ hṛdayaṃ durbhidaṃ mama | yac chrutvā puruṣavyāghraṃ hataṃ karṇa na dīryate ||

Translation

Vaiśampāyana sprach: „Gewiss ist mein Herz aus dem Wesen des Adamanten gemacht: hart und schwer zu brechen. Denn selbst nachdem ich gehört habe, dass Karṇa – der Tiger unter den Menschen – erschlagen wurde, spaltet es sich nicht.“

Word by Word

• {'vajra-sāra-mayam': 'made of the essence/core of vajra (adamant, thunderbolt)

• extremely hard', 'nūnam': 'surely, indeed', 'hṛdayam': 'heart

• inner mind/seat of feeling', 'durbhidam': 'hard to split/break

• difficult to pierce', 'mama': 'my', 'yat': 'because/that (introducing the reason)', 'śrutvā': 'having heard', 'puruṣa-vyāghram': 'tiger among men

• a foremost hero', 'hatam': 'slain, killed', 'karṇam': 'Karna (accusative singular)', 'na': 'not', 'dīryate': 'is torn/split

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vaiśampāyana
• Karna

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights how prolonged conflict and the demands of duty can harden a person’s inner sensibility: even hearing of a great hero’s death may not immediately produce the expected rupture of grief. It implicitly critiques the numbing effect of war and the strange resilience (or emotional desiccation) it can create.

What is happening in the narrative?

The speaker (Vaiśampāyana) remarks that, despite hearing the news that Karṇa—renowned as a supreme warrior—has been killed, his heart does not break. This functions as a lament-like reflection on the enormity of Karṇa’s fall and the listener’s stunned, hardened response.