Shloka 29

कर्णेन युधिष्ठिरानीकविदारणम् / Karṇa’s Breach of Yudhiṣṭhira’s Battle-Line

Devanagari script

द्यां युगं युगचर्माणि संवर्तकबलाहकान्‌ । कालपृष्ठोडथ नहुष: कर्कोटकधनंजयौ

Transliteration

dyāṃ yugaṃ yugacarmāṇi saṃvartakabalāhakān | kālapṛṣṭho ’tha nahuṣaḥ karkoṭakadhanaṃjayau ||

Translation

आकाशच जू बनले; युगांचे चर्म जूच्या पट्ट्या झाले; आणि प्रलयकाळचे मेघ बांधणीचे साधन झाले. कालपृष्ठ, नहुष, कर्कोटक, धनंजय इत्यादी नाग व इतर नाग घोड्यांच्या केसर बांधण्याच्या दोऱ्या झाले; आणि दिशा व विदिशा रथाश्वांच्या बागडोरीचे रूप धारण करू लागल्या।

Word by Word

• द्याम्: heaven, sky
• द्याम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: दिव्
• Form: Feminine, Accusative, Singular

• युगम्: yoke; age/epoch
• युगम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: युग
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

• युगचर्माणि: yoke-leathers (straps made of hide for the yoke)
• युगचर्माणि: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: युगचर्मन्
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Plural

• संवर्तकबलाहकान्: the world-dissolution clouds (pralaya-clouds)
• संवर्तकबलाहकान्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: संवर्तकबलाहक
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Plural

• कालपृष्ठः: Kālapṛṣṭha (a nāga name; 'time-backed')
• कालपृष्ठः: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: कालपृष्ठ
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• उत: and; also
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: उत

• नहुषः: Nahuṣa (a nāga name)
• नहुषः: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: नहुष
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• कर्कोटकः: Karkoṭaka (a nāga name)
• कर्कोटकः: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: कर्कोटक
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• धनंजयः: Dhanañjaya (a nāga name; also an epithet of Arjuna)
• धनंजयः: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: धनंजय
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• च: and
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: च

Speaker

दुर्योधन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Duryodhana
• Dyauḥ (Sky/Heaven)
• Yuga (cosmic age, as metaphor)
• Saṃvartaka Balāhaka (pralaya clouds)
• Kālapṛṣṭha (nāga)
• Nahuṣa (nāga)
• Karkoṭaka (nāga)
• Dhanaṃjaya (nāga)
• Nāgas (serpents)
• Diśas (directions)
• Vidiśas (intermediate directions)
• Yoke
• Yoke-straps
• Reins
• Horse-mane fastening ropes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse illustrates how a warrior-king’s rhetoric can inflate human conflict into cosmic inevitability. Ethically, it warns that grandiose self-justification and fascination with power can eclipse discernment (dharma-vicāra) and the duty to restrain violence.

What is happening in the narrative?

Duryodhana describes an imagined, cosmic-scale chariot harnessing: sky as yoke, pralaya-clouds as gear, nāgas as fastening ropes, and the directions as reins. It is a poetic intensification of the war’s magnitude and his own martial resolve.