Shloka 42
मुकुट गिर जानेपर श्यामवर्ण, नवयुवक अर्जुन ऊँचे शिखरवाले नीलगिरिके समान शोभा पाने लगे। उस समय उन्हें तनिक भी व्यथा नहीं हुई। वे अपने केशोंको सफेद वस्त्रसे बाँधकर युद्धके लिये डटे रहे। श्वेत वस्त्रसे केश बाँधनेके कारण वे शिखरपर फैली हुई सूर्यदेवकी किरणोंसे प्रकाशित होनेवाले उदयाचलके समान सुशोभित हुए ।।
sañjaya uvāca |
mukuṭa-gire jāne para śyāma-varṇaḥ nava-yuvakaḥ arjunaḥ ūrdhva-śikhara-vān nīla-giri-sadṛśaṃ śobhāṃ prāpa | tasmin kāle tasya tan-mātram api vyathā na babhūva | sa keśān śveta-vastrena baddhvā yuddhāya sthitaḥ | śveta-vastra-baddha-keśatvāt sa śikhare prasṛtābhiḥ sūrya-kiraṇaiḥ prakāśita-udayācalavat suśobhitavān ||
aṃśumālinaḥ sūryasya putreṇa karṇena kṛtena iṣuṇā goputra-samprerṣitā | go-śabdātmaja-bhūṣaṇaṃ su-vihitaṃ su-vyaktaṃ su-prabham | dṛṣṭvā go-gatakaṃ jahāra mukuṭaṃ go-śabda-gopūr iva | gokarṇāsana-mardanaś ca na yayau prāpya mṛtyor vaśam ||
Sañjaya said: When Arjuna’s diadem was struck down, the dark-hued, youthful hero shone like a lofty-peaked blue mountain. Even then he felt no distress. Binding up his hair with a white cloth, he stood firm for battle; with his hair thus tied in white, he appeared like the eastern mountain lit by the sun’s rays spread across its summit. Then Karṇa, the son of the radiant Sun, loosed an arrow—swift and forceful, as though a living, self-born and self-guarded serpent. Aiming toward Arjuna’s head, it did not take his life but carried off only the diadem—an ornament fashioned by Brahmā as a splendid adornment for Indra, blazing with sunlike brilliance. Arjuna, who could crush such ‘serpent-like’ missiles with his own shafts, did not fall under Death’s power; he denied the enemy a renewed opening and remained steadfast in the fight.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights kṣatriya steadiness under loss and shock: even when a prized emblem (the diadem) is taken, Arjuna does not collapse into grief or fear. Ethical strength here is self-mastery—maintaining resolve, protecting one’s duty in battle, and not giving the opponent a second opening.
Karna shoots a powerful arrow aimed at Arjuna’s head. It does not kill Arjuna but knocks away his radiant diadem—described as a divine ornament made by Brahmā for Indra. Arjuna, unshaken, ties his hair with a white cloth and continues fighting, shining like the sunrise mountain.