Shloka 293
कर्णपरर्वणि त्रयोचत्वारिंशदध्यायः (Karṇa-parva Adhyāya 43) — Kṛṣṇa’s Battlefield Assessment and the Reversal Around Bhīma
सबालवृद्धा: क्रन्दन्तस्तेषु धर्म: कथं भवेत् । “जो शाकलनिवासी आबालवृद्ध नर-नारी मदिरासे उन्मत्त हो चिल्ला-चिल्लाकर ऐसी गाथाएँ गाया करते हैं, उनमें धर्म कैसे रह सकता है?”
sabālavṛddhāḥ krandantas teṣu dharmaḥ kathaṃ bhavet
ಶಾಕಲದ ನಿವಾಸಿಗಳು—ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಂದ ವೃದ್ಧರವರೆಗೆ—ಸ್ತ್ರೀಪುರುಷರೆಲ್ಲ ಮದ್ಯಮತ್ತರಾಗಿ ಕೂಗಿ ಕೂಗಿ ಇಂತಹ ಗಾಥೆಗಳನ್ನು ಹಾಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದರೆ, ಅಲ್ಲಿ ಧರ್ಮ ಹೇಗೆ ಉಳಿಯುವುದು?
कर्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
Karna frames dharma as inseparable from social restraint and humane conduct: where intoxication, loud disorder, and the suffering cries of the vulnerable prevail, moral order cannot be sustained.
Karna is speaking critically about a community (associated with Śākala in the accompanying gloss), portraying it as morally degraded—people of all ages intoxicated and shouting—using this as evidence that dharma is absent there.