Shloka 236
युध्यस्व सहितोस्माभिवर्दुरात्मन् पुरुषाधम । “कहाँ कर्ण है? यह कर्ण है। दुरात्मन् नराधम कर्ण! इस महायुद्धमें खड़ा रह और हमारे साथ युद्ध कर”
yudhyasva sahito 'smābhir durātman puruṣādhama | “kahām karṇaḥ? eṣa karṇaḥ. durātman narādhama karṇa! asmin mahāyuddhe sthito bhava ca asmābhiḥ saha yudhyasva” ||
Sañjaya said: “Fight with us, O wicked one, lowest among men. ‘Where is Karṇa?’—‘Here is Karṇa.’ O vile, base Karṇa! Stand firm in this great war and fight with us.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how war-speech often mixes a call to courage and steadfastness with moral condemnation of the enemy. It shows the ethical tension in epic warfare: valor and firmness are demanded, yet the opponent is dehumanized through abusive epithets, revealing the corrosive rhetoric that accompanies adharma-driven conflict.
Sanjaya reports a battlefield taunt and challenge directed at Karna: he is pointed out (“Here is Karna”) and commanded to stand in the great war and fight together with the speaker’s side. The line functions as a provocation meant to draw Karna into direct engagement and to shame him into remaining in the fight.