Shloka 3

Devanagari script

कन्यागर्भ: पृथुयशा: पृथाया: पृथुलोचन: । तीक्ष्णांशोर्भास्करस्यांश: कर्णोडरिगणसूदन:,कुन्तीने कन्यावस्थामें ही उसे अपने गर्भमें धारण किया था। उसका यश सर्वत्र फैला हुआ था। उसके दोनों नेत्र बड़े-बड़े थे। शत्रुसमुदायका संहार करनेवाला कर्ण प्रचण्ड किरणोंवाले भगवान्‌ भास्करका अंश था

Transliteration

kanyāgarbhaḥ pṛthuyaśāḥ pṛthāyāḥ pṛthulocanaḥ | tīkṣṇāṃśor bhāskarasyāṃśaḥ karṇo ripugaṇasūdanaḥ ||

Translation

Vaiśampāyana said: While Pṛthā (Kuntī) was still in maidenhood, she conceived and bore a son in secret. He was renowned far and wide, large-eyed, and a slayer of hostile hosts—Karṇa, an incarnation-like portion of the radiant Sun (Bhāskara) with his fierce beams. The narration underscores both the extraordinary, divinely sourced birth of Karṇa and the moral tension surrounding an unwed mother’s concealed maternity in a society governed by honor and dharma.

Word by Word

कन्यागर्भःone conceived/borne as a maiden’s pregnancy

पृथुयशाःof wide fame

पृथायाःof Pṛthā (Kuntī)

पृथुलोचनःlarge-eyed

तीक्ष्णांशोःof the sharp-rayed one (the Sun)

भास्करस्यof Bhāskara (the Sun)

अंशःa portion; an incarnation-part

कर्णःKarna

अरिगणसूदनःdestroyer of hosts of enemies

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vaiśampāyana

Pṛthā (Kuntī)

Karṇa

Bhāskara (Sūrya, the Sun)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Cross References

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights the ethical tension between social dharma (maidenhood, honor, legitimacy) and the reality of divine intervention and destiny. Karṇa’s solar origin marks him as extraordinary, yet his concealed birth foreshadows later conflicts about identity, status, and justice.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vaiśampāyana describes Karṇa’s conception and nature: Kuntī, still unmarried, bears him; he is famed, large-eyed, and a destroyer of enemy hosts, being a partial manifestation of the Sun-god (Bhāskara).