Shloka 68
सहसतनेत्रप्रतिमानकर्मण: सहस्रपत्रप्रतिमाननं शुभम् | सहसरश्मिर्दिनसंक्षये यथा तथापतत् कर्णशिरो वसुंधराम्,सहसनेत्रधारी इन्द्रके समान पराक्रमी कर्णका सहस्रदल कमलके समान वह सुन्दर मस्तक उसी प्रकार पृथ्वीपर गिर पड़ा, जैसे सायंकालमें सहस्र किरणोंवाले सूर्यका मण्डल अस्त हो जाता है
sahasranetra-pratimāna-karmaṇaḥ sahasra-patra-pratimānanaṃ śubham | sahasra-raśmir dina-saṃkṣaye yathā tathāpatat karṇa-śiro vasuṃdharām ||
Sañjaya said: Karṇa’s noble head—whose deeds were like those of Indra of the thousand eyes, and whose face was like a thousand-petalled lotus—fell upon the earth, just as the thousand-rayed sun’s orb sinks at day’s end. The image marks the close of a mighty life in war: splendour and power are transient, and even the greatest warrior meets the same final law that governs all embodied beings.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores impermanence: even a warrior likened to Indra in prowess and to a lotus in beauty must fall. Martial glory is real yet fleeting, and the moral world of the epic reminds the listener that embodied power ends under the same universal law.
Sañjaya reports the climactic moment of Karṇa’s death: his head falls to the ground. The fall is poetically framed through two similes—Indra (for heroic deeds) and the setting sun (for the inevitable close of a great life).