Shloka 206
Svargārohaṇa-parva Adhyāya 5 — Karmaphala-Nirdeśa and Phalāśruti (कर्मफलनिर्देशः फलश्रुतिश्च)
द्वापरं शकुनि: प्राप धृष्टद्युम्नस्तु पावकम् । पुरुषप्रवर कर्ण जो अर्जुनके द्वारा मारे गये थे, सूर्यमें प्रविष्ट हुए। शकुनिने द्वापरमें और धृष्टद्युम्नने अग्निके स्वरूपमें प्रवेश किया
dvāparaṁ śakuniḥ prāpa dhṛṣṭadyumnas tu pāvakam | puruṣapravaraḥ karṇo yo 'rjunena hataḥ sūrye praviṣṭavān | śakunir dvāpare dhṛṣṭadyumno 'gnisvarūpeṇa ca praviṣṭaḥ ||
Vaiśampāyana said: Śakuni attained the Dvāpara principle, and Dhṛṣṭadyumna entered into the Fire. Karṇa—foremost among men—who had been slain by Arjuna, entered into the Sun. Thus, Śakuni merged into Dvāpara, and Dhṛṣṭadyumna merged into the very form of Agni. The passage frames their deaths not merely as ends, but as a return of each warrior’s defining nature to its cosmic source, underscoring the Mahābhārata’s vision of moral causality and dissolution after the war.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents death as a reintegration into cosmic principles: each figure returns to the elemental or divine source aligned with their nature and destiny. It reflects the epic’s ethical-cosmic view that actions and identities culminate in an ordered dissolution, not random annihilation.
In the Svargārohaṇa sequence, Vaiśampāyana describes the post-war end of key figures: Śakuni merges with the Dvāpara principle, Dhṛṣṭadyumna merges into Fire (Agni), and Karṇa—killed by Arjuna—merges into the Sun (Sūrya), his divine origin.