Shloka 28
कर्णपर्व — अध्याय ४०
Karṇa’s Pressure on the Pāñcālas; Duryodhana Disabled; Arjuna’s Counter-Advance
अवडीनं प्रडीनं च संडीनं डीनडीनकम् | संडीनोड्डीनडीनं च पुनर्डीनविडीनकम्
avaḍīnaṃ praḍīnaṃ ca saṃḍīnaṃ dīna-dīnakam | saṃḍīnoḍḍīna-dīnaṃ ca punar dīna-viḍīnakam
“यह गिरा, फिर और गिरा; धँसा और अधिक दीन हुआ। फिर धँसा, फिर उछलकर भी दीन बना; और एक बार फिर दुखी होकर नीचे गिरा।”
काक उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse functions less as a doctrinal maxim and more as an evocative warning: repeated moral and material decline leads to compounding misery. In the war context, it underscores the atmosphere of distress and the sense that adharma-driven conflict produces escalating suffering.
A crow is presented as speaking in a sound-heavy, repetitive sequence of words. The utterance conveys a rhythm of falling, sinking, and renewed wretchedness—suggestive of an ominous or lamenting cry within the Karṇa Parva’s battlefield narrative.