Shloka 41
कर्णपरर्वणि त्रयोचत्वारिंशदध्यायः (Karṇa-parva Adhyāya 43) — Kṛṣṇa’s Battlefield Assessment and the Reversal Around Bhīma
बहिश्न नाम हीकश्न विपाशायां पिशाचकौ,विपाशा (व्यास) नदीमें दो पिशाच रहते हैं। एकका नाम है बहि और दूसरेका नाम है हीक। इन्हीं दोनोंकी संतानें बाहीक कहलाती हैं। ब्रह्माजीने इनकी सृष्टि नहीं की है। वे नीच योनिमें उत्पन्न हुए मनुष्य नाना प्रकारके धर्मोंको कैसे जानेंगे?
Bahiśna nāma hīkaś ca Vipāśāyāṃ piśācakau; Vipāśā-nadī-tīre dvau piśācau vasataḥ—ekasya nāma Bahiḥ, dvitīyasya Hīkaḥ. Etayoḥ santānā bāhīkā iti kathyante. Brahmaṇā naite sṛṣṭāḥ; nīcayoniṣu jāta-manuṣyā nānāvidhān dharmān kathaṃ jñāsyanti?
Karna said: “On the river Vipāśā dwell two piśācas, one named Bahi and the other Hīka. Their offspring are known as the Bāhīkas. Brahmā did not create them; born from a base womb, how could such men understand the many forms of dharma?”
कर्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse illustrates how dharma-language can be used polemically: Karna argues that those he labels as of ‘impure’ origin cannot grasp dharma, revealing a rhetorical strategy of delegitimizing opponents by attacking lineage rather than conduct.
In the midst of the war discourse, Karna delivers a harsh denunciation of the Bāhīkas, narrating a mythic origin from two piśācas on the Vipāśā river and using it to claim they are outside Brahmā’s proper creation and therefore unfit to understand dharma.