Shloka 32
कर्णेन सैन्यस्थापनं तथा नानायुद्धसमवायः
Karna Reforms the Host and Multiple Duels Converge
प्रतीचीं वरुण: पाति पालयान: सुरान् बली | उदीचीं भगवान् सोमो ब्राह्मणैः सह रक्षति
pratīcīṁ varuṇaḥ pāti pālayānaḥ surān balī | udīcīṁ bhagavān somo brāhmaṇaiḥ saha rakṣati ||
Karna berkata: “Varuṇa yang perkasa, yang memelihara para dewa, menjaga arah barat. Dan Soma yang mulia, bersama para Brāhmaṇa, melindungi arah utara.”
कर्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames protection and order as distributed across the cosmos: divine powers guard the quarters, and Soma’s protection is explicitly linked with Brahmins, suggesting that sacred authority and ritual order cooperate with divine guardianship to uphold stability.
In Karna Parva, Karna is speaking in a martial setting and invokes a cosmological map of protection—naming Varuṇa as guardian of the west and Soma (with the Brahmins) as guardian of the north—situating the battlefield discourse within a wider moral and cosmic order.