Shloka 48
हत्वा कर्ण रणे कृष्ण शम्बरं मघवानिव । “श्रीकृष्ण! जैसे इन्द्रने शम्बरासुरका वध किया था, उसी प्रकार मैं रणभूमिमें कर्णको मारकर आज तेरह वर्षोंसे संचित किये हुए दुःखका परित्याग कर दूँगा ।। अद्य कर्ण हते युद्धे सोमकानां महारथा:
hatvā karṇa raṇe kṛṣṇa śambaraṃ maghavān iva | adya karṇa hate yuddhe somakānāṃ mahārathaḥ ||
Sañjaya said: “O Kṛṣṇa, just as Maghavān (Indra) slew the demon Śambara, so will I slay Karṇa on the battlefield today and cast off the sorrow that has been accumulating for thirteen years. Today, when Karṇa is slain in war, the great chariot-warriors of the Somakas…”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the kṣatriya ethos of steadfast resolve in a just war: enduring long suffering and seeking its end through decisive action, while framing human struggle within a larger moral-mythic order (the Indra–Śambara paradigm).
Sañjaya reports a warrior’s vow addressed to Kṛṣṇa: Karṇa will be slain in battle, likened to Indra’s slaying of Śambara, and this act is seen as ending years of accumulated grief; the line then turns toward the consequences for the Somaka great warriors.