Shloka 23
Karṇa’s Camp-Council Discourse: Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s Lament, Sañjaya’s Counsel, and Karṇa’s Request for Śalya
Book 8, Chapter 22
इति श्रीमहाभारते कर्णपर्वणि सहदेवदु:शासनयुद्धे त्रयोविंशो 5ध्याय:
iti śrīmahābhārate karṇaparvaṇi sahadevaduḥśāsanayuddhe trayoviṃśo 'dhyāyaḥ
Thus, in the revered Mahābhārata, within the Karṇa Parva, ends the twenty-third chapter, describing the battle between Sahadeva and Duḥśāsana. The colophon marks the close of a narrative unit in which personal enmity and the demands of war converge, reminding the listener that the epic frames even fierce combat within a larger moral and historical record.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
As a colophon, the verse chiefly teaches how the Mahābhārata frames violent events within an ordered textual and moral record: battles are narrated not as isolated brutality but as episodes embedded in a larger inquiry into dharma, responsibility, and consequence.
This line signals the end of the chapter in Karṇa Parva that centers on the combat between Sahadeva and Duḥśāsana; it is a formal closing statement rather than a spoken battlefield utterance.