Shloka 7

कर्णेन सैन्यस्थापनं तथा नानायुद्धसमवायः

Karna Reforms the Host and Multiple Duels Converge

Devanagari script

नापितश्च ततो भूत्वा पुनर्भवति ब्राह्मण: । द्विजो भूत्वा च तत्रैव पुनर्दासोडभिजायते,“उस देशमें एक ही बाहीक पहले ब्राह्मण होकर फिर क्षत्रिय होता है। तत्पश्चात्‌ वैश्य और शूद्र भी बन जाता है। उसके बाद वह नाई होता है। नाई होकर फिर ब्राह्मण हो जाता है। ब्राह्मण होनेके पश्चात्‌ फिर वही दास बन जाता है-

Transliteration

nāpitaś ca tato bhūtvā punar bhavati brāhmaṇaḥ | dvijo bhūtvā ca tatraiva punar dāso 'bhijāyate ||

Translation

Karna dit : «Après être devenu barbier, il redevient brāhmane. Et même après être devenu, dans ce même pays, un “deux-fois-né”, il renaît encore comme esclave.»

Word by Word

नापितःbarber

चand

ततःthen/from that (time)

भूत्वाhaving become

पुनःagain

भवतिbecomes/is

ब्राह्मणःa Brahmin

द्विजःa twice-born (Brahmin/Kshatriya/Vaishya)

भूत्वाhaving become

चand

तत्रthere

एवindeed/just

पुनःagain

दासःa slave/servant

उद्भिजायतेis born/arises (again)

Speaker

कर्ण उवाच

Characters & Entities

Karna

Bāhlīka (country/people, implied by the surrounding passage)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse is not framed as a universal ethical injunction; it functions as wartime rhetoric. Karna weaponizes the idea of rebirth and shifting social status to depict a particular land/community as morally and socially degraded, thereby intensifying contempt and justifying hostility.

What is happening in the narrative?

During the Karna Parva battle context, Karna is speaking in a confrontational tone. He describes a cycle of births—barber, Brahmin, twice-born, then slave—set “in that very land,” as part of a broader denunciation meant to insult and discredit the Bāhlīkas (as indicated by the surrounding lines in the Gita Press passage).