Shloka 32
कर्णपरर्वणि त्रयोचत्वारिंशदध्यायः (Karṇa-parva Adhyāya 43) — Kṛṣṇa’s Battlefield Assessment and the Reversal Around Bhīma
शतद्रुश्ष विपाशा च तृतीयैरावती तथा । चन्द्रभागा वितस्ता च सिन्धुषष्ठा बहिगिरि:
Śatadruś ca Vipāśā ca tṛtīyā Irāvatī tathā | Candrabhāgā Vitastā ca Sindhuḥ ṣaṣṭhā Bahirgiriḥ ||
Karna continues by enumerating the great rivers of the north-west: the Śatadru, the Vipāśā, and third the Irāvatī; likewise the Candrabhāgā and the Vitastā; and as the sixth, the Sindhu—together with the Bahirgiri. In the war-context, this catalogue evokes the vastness of Bhārata’s sacred geography and the many regions and peoples implicated in the conflict, reminding the listener that the struggle’s moral weight extends across the whole land.
कर्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse’s core import is not a direct moral injunction but a narrative-ethical reminder: the war is not a private quarrel but a catastrophe spanning the whole sacred geography of Bhārata. By invoking renowned rivers, the text widens the listener’s horizon to the land, peoples, and dharmic order affected by the conflict.
Karna is speaking and listing major rivers—Śatadru, Vipāśā, Irāvatī, Candrabhāgā, Vitastā, and Sindhu (with Bahirgiri also named)—as part of a broader geographical catalogue, situating events and alliances within the expanse of the subcontinent’s famed regions.