Shloka 35
अर्जुनकर्णसंनिपातवर्णनम् / The Convergence of Arjuna and Karṇa
जो शौर्यके मदसे उन्मत्त हो कौरवोंकी सभामें सदा बढ-बढ़कर बातें बनाया करता था और दुर्योधनको अत्यन्त प्रिय था, क्या उस पापी कर्णको तुमने आज मार डाला? ।।
Yudhiṣṭhira uvāca: yaḥ śaurya-madena unmattaḥ Kauravāṇāṁ sabhāyāṁ sadā baḍha-baḍhakar vārtāḥ nirmimīte ca Duryodhanasya atyanta-priyaḥ, kiṁ taṁ pāpinaṁ Karṇaṁ tvam adya jaghānitha? kaccit samāgamya dhanuḥ-prayuktaiḥ tvat-preṣitaiḥ lohitāṅgaiḥ vihagair iva śaraiḥ śete sa pāpaḥ su-vibhinnagātraḥ? kaccid bhagnau Dhārtarāṣṭrasya bāhū?
ユディシュティラは言った。「あのカルナ――武勇の誇りに酔い、カウラヴァの सभा（集会）では常に度を越して大言壮語し、ドゥルヨーダナにこの上なく愛された者――その罪深き男を、今日おまえは討ったのか。戦場でおまえに相まみえたのち、血のごとく赤い、鳥の飛翔のように天を翔ける矢を弓より放たれて、四肢がことごとく引き裂かれ、今は大地に横たわっているのか。そして彼の没落とともに、ドゥルヨーダナの両腕も折れたも同然となったのか。」
युधिषछ्िर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames Karṇa’s fall as the moral consequence of arrogance and complicity in adharma: prowess without restraint becomes ‘śaurya-mada,’ and loyalty to an unrighteous cause brings ruin. It also shows how a warrior’s death can be understood ethically—not merely as a tactical event, but as the collapse of a support-pillar of injustice.
Yudhiṣṭhira anxiously questions his ally (contextually, Arjuna) whether Karṇa—Duryodhana’s most valued champion and a notorious boaster in the Kaurava court—has been killed in battle. He vividly imagines Karṇa lying on the ground, limbs shattered by arrows shot from the bow, and adds that Karṇa’s death would be like breaking Duryodhana’s two arms—i.e., destroying his chief strength.