Shloka 30
कर्णेन युधिष्ठिरानीकविदारणम् / Karṇa’s Breach of Yudhiṣṭhira’s Battle-Line
इतरे चाभवन् नागा हयानां बालबन्धना: । दिशश्च प्रदिशश्वैव रश्मयो रथवाजिनाम्
itare cābhavan nāgā hayānāṃ bālabandhanāḥ | diśaś ca pradiśaś caiva raśmayo rathavājinām ||
Dijo Duryodhana: «Otras serpientes se volvieron las cuerdas para atar las crines de los caballos, y las direcciones y direcciones intermedias tomaron la forma de las riendas de los caballos del carro.»
दुर्योधन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses cosmic hyperbole to show how martial pride imagines even nature and mythic beings as instruments of one’s will; ethically, it hints at the danger of power unrestrained by dharma—turning the world into a tool for domination rather than acting with self-governed righteousness.
Duryodhana is describing an awe-inspiring, almost supernatural martial arrangement: Nāgas serve as horse-bindings, and the directions themselves are imagined as the reins controlling the chariot-horses—an elevated poetic depiction of war-pageantry and might.