Shloka 11
अध्याय २१ — गान्धार्या वैकर्तनदर्शनम्
Gāndhārī’s Viewing of Vaikartana/Karṇa
आचार्यशापो<नुगतो ध्रुवं त्वां यदग्रसच्चक्रमिदं धरित्री । तत: शरेणापहतं शिरस्ते धनंजयेनाहवशोभिना युधि
ācāryaśāpo 'nugato dhruvaṃ tvāṃ yad agrasac cakram idaṃ dharitri | tataḥ śareṇāpahataṃ śiras te dhanaṃjayenāhavaśobhinā yudhi ||
Vaiśampāyana said: Surely the curse of the teacher has overtaken you, since this wheel of the earth has seized you fast. Therefore, in battle, your head was struck down by an arrow from Dhanañjaya (Arjuna), the one who makes the battlefield shine—an outcome that frames the fall as both a moral consequence and a fated turning within the war’s tragic order.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a warrior’s downfall as the convergence of moral causality (a teacher’s curse) and battlefield circumstance: when one is bound by prior wrongdoing and its consequences, even a small turn of events (the wheel caught in the earth) can become the doorway through which fate and justice operate.
The speaker explains that the opponent was immobilized when the chariot wheel became stuck in the earth; at that moment, Arjuna (Dhanañjaya), famed for splendor in battle, struck off his head with an arrow—presented as the fulfillment of an earlier curse.