Shloka 48
कर्णेन युधिष्ठिरानीकविदारणम् / Karṇa’s Breach of Yudhiṣṭhira’s Battle-Line
कालो हि भगवान् रुद्रस्तस्य संवत्सरो धनु: । तस्माद् रौद्री कालरात्रिज्या कृता धनुषो&5जरा
kālo hi bhagavān rudras tasya saṃvatsaro dhanuḥ | tasmād raudrī kālarātrijyā kṛtā dhanuṣo’jarā ||
Duryodhana berkata: “Waktu itu sendiri ialah Rudra Yang Terberkati; dan tahun ialah busurnya. Maka Kālarātri—kuasa ganas Rudra sendiri—telah dijadikan tali busur, tidak terputus dan tidak menua.”
दुर्योधन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents a theologically charged view of inevitability: Time itself is identified with Rudra, and the cycles of time (the year) become his weapon. It suggests that destruction in war can be seen as driven by a cosmic force, raising the ethical tension between human responsibility and the sense of fate.
Duryodhana invokes a terrifying cosmic imagery to interpret the unfolding battle: Rudra-as-Time is imagined as armed with a bow (the year) and an unbreakable bowstring (Kālarātri). The speech functions as a rhetorical intensification of the war’s inevitability and ferocity.