Shloka 293

कर्णपरर्वणि त्रयोचत्वारिंशदध्यायः (Karṇa-parva Adhyāya 43) — Kṛṣṇa’s Battlefield Assessment and the Reversal Around Bhīma

Devanagari script

सबालवृद्धा: क्रन्दन्तस्तेषु धर्म: कथं भवेत्‌ । “जो शाकलनिवासी आबालवृद्ध नर-नारी मदिरासे उन्मत्त हो चिल्ला-चिल्लाकर ऐसी गाथाएँ गाया करते हैं, उनमें धर्म कैसे रह सकता है?”

Transliteration

sabālavṛddhāḥ krandantas teṣu dharmaḥ kathaṃ bhavet

Translation

Karna said: “When even children and the aged cry out loudly among them, how can dharma remain there? In a place where men and women of every age are driven mad by liquor and shout and sing such ballads, what room is left for righteousness?”

Word by Word

सhe/that (one)

बालवृद्धाःchildren and the aged

क्रन्दन्तःcrying, wailing

तेषुamong them/in them

धर्मःdharma, righteousness

कथम्how?

भवेत्could be / would exist

Speaker

कर्ण उवाच

Characters & Entities

Karna

Śākala (implied by the Hindi gloss: शाकलनिवासी)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Cross References

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Karna frames dharma as inseparable from social restraint and humane conduct: where intoxication, loud disorder, and the suffering cries of the vulnerable prevail, moral order cannot be sustained.

What is happening in the narrative?

Karna is speaking critically about a community (associated with Śākala in the accompanying gloss), portraying it as morally degraded—people of all ages intoxicated and shouting—using this as evidence that dharma is absent there.