Shloka 9
एतन्मया श्रुतं तत्र धर्मसंकरकारकम् । कृत्स्नामटित्वा पृथिवीं वाहीकेषु विपर्यय:
etanmayā śrutaṃ tatra dharmasaṅkarakārakam | kṛtsnām aṭitvā pṛthivīṃ vāhīkeṣu viparyayaḥ ||
Karna said: “This I heard there—something that brings about a confusion and corruption of dharma. Having wandered over the whole earth, I found that among the Vāhīkas there is a perverse inversion of proper conduct.”
कर्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse warns that when dharma is inverted—when right and wrong are confused—social and ethical order becomes corrupted (dharma-saṅkara). It frames moral discernment as essential, especially amid conflict and public life.
Karna, speaking in the Karṇa Parva, introduces a report he claims to have heard and presents it as evidence of dharma’s confusion. He says he has traveled widely and singles out the Vāhīkas as exemplifying a reversal of proper norms, using this as a rhetorical point in his speech.