Shloka 7
कर्णेन सैन्यस्थापनं तथा नानायुद्धसमवायः
Karna Reforms the Host and Multiple Duels Converge
नापितश्च ततो भूत्वा पुनर्भवति ब्राह्मण: । द्विजो भूत्वा च तत्रैव पुनर्दासोडभिजायते
nāpitaś ca tato bhūtvā punar bhavati brāhmaṇaḥ | dvijo bhūtvā ca tatraiva punar dāso 'bhijāyate ||
ನಾಪಿತನಾದ ಬಳಿಕ ಅವನು ಮತ್ತೆ ಬ್ರಾಹ್ಮಣನಾಗುತ್ತಾನೆ; ಹಾಗೆಯೇ ಅದೇ ದೇಶದಲ್ಲಿ ದ್ವಿಜನಾದರೂ, ಅವನು ಪುನಃ ದಾಸನಾಗಿ ಜನ್ಮ ಹೊಂದುತ್ತಾನೆ.
कर्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse is not framed as a universal ethical injunction; it functions as wartime rhetoric. Karna weaponizes the idea of rebirth and shifting social status to depict a particular land/community as morally and socially degraded, thereby intensifying contempt and justifying hostility.
During the Karna Parva battle context, Karna is speaking in a confrontational tone. He describes a cycle of births—barber, Brahmin, twice-born, then slave—set “in that very land,” as part of a broader denunciation meant to insult and discredit the Bāhlīkas (as indicated by the surrounding lines in the Gita Press passage).