Shloka 41
दयया यदि वा राजन द्वेष्यभावान्मम प्रभो | मन्दभाग्यतया वापि मम रक्षसि पाण्डवान्,“शक्तिशाली राजन! यदि पाण्डवोंके प्रति दयाभाव अथवा मेरे दुर्भाग्यवश मेरे प्रति द्ेषभाव रखनेके कारण आप पाण्डवोंकी रक्षा करते हैं तो समरभूमिमें शोभा पानेवाले कर्णको युद्धके लिये आज्ञा दे दीजिये। वह सुहृदों और बान्धवोंसहित कुन्तीपुत्रोंको अवश्य जीत लेगा”
dayayā yadi vā rājan dveṣyabhāvān mama prabho | mandabhāgyatayā vāpi mama rakṣasi pāṇḍavān |
Karna said: “O king, my lord—if out of compassion toward the Pāṇḍavas, or out of hostility toward me born of my ill fortune, you are protecting the Pāṇḍavas, then grant Karna—who seeks glory on the battlefield—permission to fight. He will surely defeat the sons of Kuntī, together with their friends and kinsmen.”
कर्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the warrior-ethic of honor and the tension between personal loyalty and perceived injustice: Karna frames the king’s protection of the Pāṇḍavas as either compassion or bias against him, and demands the chance to prove worth through battle—showing how pride, fate, and allegiance shape moral choices in war.
Karna addresses Duryodhana, suggesting that the king is shielding the Pāṇḍavas either out of pity for them or out of animosity toward Karna. He asks for authorization to fight, asserting that he will defeat the sons of Kuntī along with their allies and relatives.