Shloka 12

कर्णेन व्यूहविधानम् — Karṇa’s Battle Formation and the Pāṇḍava Counter-Plan

Adhyāya 31

Devanagari script

कृत्वा नसुकरं कर्म गतौ स्वर्गमितोडनघ । तथान्ये पुरुषव्याप्रा: परैर्विनिहता युधि

Transliteration

kṛtvā na sukaraṃ karma gatau svargam ito ’naghāḥ | tathānye puruṣavyāghrāḥ parair vinihatā yudhi ||

Translation

Sañjaya disse: “Tendo realizado feitos nada fáceis de cumprir, aqueles heróis irrepreensíveis partiram daqui para o céu. Do mesmo modo, outros homens, como tigres, foram abatidos em batalha por seus inimigos — a guerra consome até os poderosos, e a morte chega pelas estratagemas do oponente, como sucedeu àqueles arqueiros envelhecidos.”

Word by Word

• {'kṛtvā': 'having done, having accomplished', 'na sukaraṃ': 'not easy to do

• difficult', 'karma': 'deed, act (especially a weighty or valorous action)', 'gatau': 'gone, departed (dual/plural sense in context)', 'svargam': 'to heaven

• the heavenly world', 'itaḥ': 'from here', 'anaghāḥ': 'blameless, faultless (vocative/plural sense)', 'tathā': 'thus, likewise', 'anye': 'others', 'puruṣavyāghrāḥ': 'tigers among men

• great heroes', 'paraiḥ': 'by others

• by enemies', 'vinihatāḥ': 'slain, struck down', 'yudhi': 'in battle'}

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sañjaya
• Svarga (heaven)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse frames battlefield death within a moral-ritual horizon: heroic, arduous action (duskara karma) can lead to svarga, yet war also involves opponents’ stratagems and the vulnerability of even great warriors—highlighting both the ideal of valor and the grim reality of conflict.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that certain blameless heroes, after performing difficult feats, have died and gone to heaven; he generalizes that many other great warriors too have been killed in the fighting by their enemies.