Shloka 26
राजयाजकयाज्यानां मद्रकाणां च यन्मलम् | तद् भवेद् वै तव मल यद्यस्मान्न विमुड्चसि,“राजपुरोहितोंके पुरोहितों तथा मद्रदेशवासियोंका जो मल है, वह सब तुम्हें प्राप्त हो, यदि इस सरोवरसे तुम मेरा उद्धार न कर दो”
rājayājakayājyānāṁ madrakāṇāṁ ca yan malam | tad bhaved vai tava mala yadyasmān na vimuñcasi ||
Karna said: “If you do not release me from this lake, then may the defilement attributed to royal sacrificers and to those for whom sacrifices are performed, and the impurity imputed to the people of Madra, come upon you as your own.”
कर्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how ethical conduct (dharma) is tested under pressure: instead of appealing through compassion or righteousness, Karna uses a threat framed in ritual-social impurity. It warns that desperation can distort speech into coercion, and that invoking purity/impurity as a weapon reflects moral strain in wartime.
Karna, hindered in a lake/pond (as indicated by the contextual gloss), addresses another party and demands to be freed. To force compliance, he pronounces an imprecation: if he is not released, the ‘mala’ (defilement) associated with certain ritual agents and the Madra people should fall upon the hearer.