Shloka 48
कर्णेन युधिष्ठिरानीकविदारणम् / Karṇa’s Breach of Yudhiṣṭhira’s Battle-Line
कालो हि भगवान् रुद्रस्तस्य संवत्सरो धनु: । तस्माद् रौद्री कालरात्रिज्या कृता धनुषो&5जरा,भगवान् रुद्र ही काल हैं, अत: कालका अवयवभूत संवत्सर ही उनका धनुष हुआ। कालरात्रि भी रुद्रका ही अंश है, अत: उसीको उन्होंने अपने धनुषकी अटूट प्रत्यंचा बना लिया
kālo hi bhagavān rudras tasya saṃvatsaro dhanuḥ | tasmād raudrī kālarātrijyā kṛtā dhanuṣo’jarā ||
Дурьодхана сказал: «Само Время — благословенный Рудра, а год — его лук. Потому Каларāтри — яростная сила самого Рудры — сделана тетивой, неразрывной и нестареющей».
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.