यदा रजस्वलां कृष्णां दःशासनवशे स्थिताम् | सभायां प्राहस: कर्ण क््व ते धर्मस्तदा गत:,“कर्ण! भरी सभामें दुःशासनके वशमें पड़ी हुई रजस्वला द्रौपदीको लक्ष्य करके जब तुमने उपहास किया था, तब तुम्हारा धर्म कहाँ चला गया था?
yadā rajasvalāṃ kṛṣṇāṃ duḥśāsana-vaśe sthitām | sabhāyāṃ prāhasaḥ karṇa kva te dharmas tadā gataḥ ||
Dijo Sañjaya: «Karna, cuando Draupadī—Kṛṣṇā—estaba en su estado menstrual y yacía indefensa bajo el dominio de Duḥśāsana en la asamblea real, tú te burlaste de ella. ¿Dónde estaba, entonces, tu dharma en aquel instante?»
संजय उवाच
Moral authority in war or debate is undermined by past complicity in injustice. Sañjaya confronts Karna with ethical inconsistency: one cannot claim dharma while having mocked a vulnerable woman during a grave violation in the assembly.
In the Karṇa Parva, Sañjaya recalls the earlier dice-hall episode to rebuke Karna. He points to Karna’s derision of Draupadī—then under Duḥśāsana’s power in the sabhā—as evidence that Karna abandoned dharma at a decisive moment, foreshadowing the moral reckoning of the war.