Shloka 13
राज॑स्तदा खाण्डवदाहमुक्तो विवेश कोपाद् वसुधातले यः । अथोत्पपातोर्ध्वगतिर्जवेन संदृश्य कर्णार्जुनयोरविमर्दम्
rājas tadā khāṇḍavadāhamukto viveśa kopād vasudhātale yaḥ | athotpapātor dhvagatiḥ javena sandṛśya karṇārjunayor avimardam rājan ||
Sañjaya said: O King, at that time the serpent Aśvasena—an underworld-dweller who had survived the burning of the Khāṇḍava forest and, in wrath, had entered the earth, having bound himself in enmity with Arjuna—beheld the fierce, unrelenting clash between Karṇa and Arjuna. Seeing that combat, he sprang upward with great speed, for he possessed the power of rising into the air, and arrived upon the battlefield—drawn by vengeance into the very heart of the war’s moral turmoil.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how unresolved hatred and past violence (the Khāṇḍava burning) continue to bear fruit in later crises: vengeance seeks openings even amid a larger dharma-war. It suggests that actions generate long moral and causal chains, and that personal enmities can intrude upon and complicate righteous aims.
During the intense duel between Karṇa and Arjuna, the Nāga Aśvasena—who survived the Khāṇḍava conflagration and harbors enmity toward Arjuna—emerges from beneath the earth and rushes into the battlefield, capable of rising upward through the air, intending to intervene.