Shloka 44
हतो वैकर्तन: कर्ण: सपुत्र: सहवाहन: । अर्थिनां पक्षिसंघस्य कल्पवृक्षो निपातित:,अस्त्रके तेजसे सम्पूर्ण पाण्डव और पांचालोंको संताप देकर, बाणोंकी वषकि द्वारा शत्रुसेनाको तपाकर तथा सहस््र किरणोंवाले तेजस्वी सूर्यके समान सम्पूर्ण संसारमें अपना प्रताप बिखेरकर वैकर्तन कर्ण पुत्र और वाहनोंसहित मारा गया। याचकरूपी पक्षियोंके समुदायके लिये जो कल्पवृक्षके समान था, वह कर्ण मार गिराया गया
śalya uvāca — hato vaikartanaḥ karṇaḥ saputraḥ sahavāhanaḥ | arthināṃ pakṣi-saṅghasya kalpa-vṛkṣo nipātitaḥ ||
Śalya said: Vaikartana Karṇa has been slain—together with his son and his charioteer and team. He who stood like a wish-fulfilling tree for hosts of supplicants has been felled. After scorching the Pāṇḍavas and the Pāñcālas with the brilliance of his weapons, tormenting the enemy army with showers of arrows, and spreading his fame like the radiant sun with a thousand rays, Karṇa has fallen. The verse frames his death not only as a military turning point but also as the fall of a famed giver—raising the ethical tension between heroic generosity and the ruinous course of adharma-driven war.
शल्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse juxtaposes Karṇa’s famed generosity (likened to a kalpavṛkṣa for supplicants) with the stark finality of death in war. It suggests that personal virtues like dāna and valor do not by themselves avert downfall when one is bound to an unrighteous cause and the destructive momentum of battle.
Śalya announces and describes Karṇa’s fall: after inflicting intense suffering on the Pāṇḍavas and the Pāñcālas with weapon-brilliance and arrow-showers, Karṇa—along with his son and chariot-team—is brought down. The statement functions as both report and lament, marking a decisive shift in the war’s course.