Shloka 2036
कर्णेन युधिष्ठिरानीकविदारणम् / Karṇa’s Breach of Yudhiṣṭhira’s Battle-Line
दिशश्न प्रदिशश्वैव परिवारो रथस्य तु । मन्दराचल उस रथका धुरा था, महानदी गंगा जंघा (धुरेका आश्रय) बनी थीं, दिशाएँ और विदिशाएँ उस रथका आवरण थीं
diśaś ca pradiśaś caiva parivāro rathasya tu | mandarācalaḥ asya rathasya dhurā āsīt, mahānadī gaṅgā jaṅghā (dhureka-āśrayaḥ) babhūva; diśaḥ ca vidiśaḥ asya rathasya āvaraṇāni āsan |
Duryodhana continues the grand, hyperbolic description of a cosmic chariot: the directions and intermediate directions formed its encircling frame and covering. Mount Mandara served as its yoke-pole, and the great river Gaṅgā became its supporting ‘thigh’—the prop that bears the yoke.
दुर्योधन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse illustrates how rhetorical grandeur can be used to legitimize violence: by casting a war-chariot in cosmic terms, the speaker implies that his cause is as vast and ordered as the universe. Ethically, it warns that power and poetic imagery do not equal dharma; moral clarity must not be replaced by self-glorifying symbolism.
Duryodhana is describing an immense, almost universe-sized chariot using mythic and geographic elements—directions as its enclosure, Mount Mandara as its yoke, and the river Gaṅgā as a supporting limb—continuing a stylized depiction meant to inspire awe and confidence in the midst of the Karṇa Parva battle context.