Shloka 20
कर्णवधोत्तरं शल्य-दुर्योधनसंवादः
Aftermath of Karṇa’s Fall: Śalya’s Address to Duryodhana
धिगस्तु मज्जीवितमद्य कृष्ण यो<हं वशं सूतपुत्रस्य यात:
dhig astu majjīvitam adya kṛṣṇa yo 'haṁ vaśaṁ sūtaputrasya yātaḥ
धिक्कार असो माझ्या जीवनाला आज, हे कृष्णा! कारण मी सूतपुत्राच्या वशात गेलो असून अपमानित झालो आहे.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the ethical weight of honor and agency in war: to be reduced to another’s control is experienced as a moral and personal collapse, prompting intense self-reproach and an appeal to a higher moral witness (Kṛṣṇa).
Sañjaya, reporting events, addresses Kṛṣṇa and laments his own continued life, saying he has come under the power of the “sūta’s son” (Karṇa). The line conveys humiliation and helplessness amid the battlefield reversals of the Karṇa Parva.