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Shloka 21

देवसत्रे मृत्युनिरोधः, पूर्वेन्द्राणां मानुषावतरणम्, द्रौपदी-वरकथनम्

Suspension of Death at the Devasatra; Former Indras’ Human Descent; Draupadī’s Boon Etiology

ब्राह्मणो5स्मि युधां श्रेष्ठ: सर्वशस्त्रभूतां वर: । ब्राह्मे पौरंदरे चास्त्रे नेष्ठितो गुरुशआसनात्‌

brāhmaṇo 'smi yudhāṁ śreṣṭhaḥ sarvaśastrabhṛtāṁ varaḥ | brāhme paurandare cāstre neṣṭhito guruśāsanāt ||

ကဏ္ဏက ပြောသည်– «အို စစ်သူရဲတို့အထဲ၌ အကောင်းဆုံးသူ၊ ငါသည် ဗြာဟ္မဏ ဖြစ်၏။ လက်နက်ကိုင်သူ အားလုံးအနက် ငါသည် အရှေ့ဆုံးဖြစ်၏။ ဗြဟ္မာလက်နက် (ဗြဟ္မာအஸ္တရ) နှင့် ပုရန္ဒရ (အိန္ဒြာ) ၏ လက်နက်တို့၌ ငါသည် ဆရာ၏ အမိန့်အတိုင်း ပြည့်စုံစွာ သင်ယူပြီးပြီ»။

ब्राह्मणःa Brahmin
ब्राह्मणः:
Karta
TypeNoun
Rootब्राह्मण
FormMasculine, Nominative, Singular
अस्मिI am
अस्मि:
Karta
TypeVerb
Rootअस्
FormPresent, First, Singular
युधाम्of battles
युधाम्:
Adhikarana
TypeNoun
Rootयुध्
FormFeminine, Genitive, Plural
श्रेष्ठःthe best
श्रेष्ठः:
Karta
TypeAdjective
Rootश्रेष्ठ
FormMasculine, Nominative, Singular
सर्वशस्त्रभूतानाम्of all weapon-beings (i.e., of all weapons)
सर्वशस्त्रभूतानाम्:
Adhikarana
TypeNoun
Rootसर्वशस्त्रभूत
FormNeuter, Genitive, Plural
वरःexcellent, best
वरः:
Karta
TypeAdjective
Rootवर
FormMasculine, Nominative, Singular
ब्राह्मेin/with the Brahma (weapon)
ब्राह्मे:
Adhikarana
TypeAdjective
Rootब्राह्म
FormNeuter, Locative, Singular
पौरंदरेin/with the Indra (weapon)
पौरंदरे:
Adhikarana
TypeAdjective
Rootपौरंदर
FormNeuter, Locative, Singular
and
:
TypeIndeclinable
Root
अस्त्रेin the two weapons
अस्त्रे:
Adhikarana
TypeNoun
Rootअस्त्र
FormNeuter, Locative, Dual
निष्ठितःtrained, accomplished
निष्ठितः:
Karta
TypeVerb
Rootनि-स्था
FormMasculine, Nominative, Singular
गुरोःof the teacher
गुरोः:
Apadana
TypeNoun
Rootगुरु
FormMasculine, Genitive, Singular
आसनात्from (his) seat; from instruction
आसनात्:
Apadana
TypeNoun
Rootआसन
FormNeuter, Ablative, Singular

कर्ण उवाच

K
Karna
B
Brāhmaṇa (claimed identity)
B
Brahmā-āstra (Brahmā weapon)
P
Purandara (Indra)
P
Paurandara-āstra (Indra’s weapon)
G
Guru (teacher)

Educational Q&A

The verse highlights the ethical tension between proclaimed identity and inner truth, and how authority (a guru’s instruction) and mastery of power (divine weapons) can be invoked to claim legitimacy. It implicitly raises questions of dharma: whether excellence and training justify status-claims, and what moral cost follows from misrepresentation.

Karna is asserting his status and martial superiority, declaring himself a brāhmaṇa and claiming accomplished training in the highest astras—Brahmā’s and Indra’s—received under a teacher’s direction. The statement functions as a credential in a competitive or confrontational setting, establishing his right to be recognized as an elite warrior and weapons-expert.