Shloka 35

Devanagari script

जो शौर्यके मदसे उन्मत्त हो कौरवोंकी सभामें सदा बढ-बढ़कर बातें बनाया करता था और दुर्योधनको अत्यन्त प्रिय था, क्या उस पापी कर्णको तुमने आज मार डाला? ।। कच्चित्‌ समागम्य धनु:प्रयुक्तै- स्त्वत्प्रेषितैलोहिताज्ैविंहज़ै: शेते स पाप: सुविभिन्नगात्र: कच्चिद्‌ भग्नौ धार्तराष्ट्रस्य बाहू,क्या आज युद्धमें तुमसे भिड़कर तुम्हारे द्वारा धनुषसे छोड़े गये लाल अंगोंवाले आकाशचारी बाणोंसे सारा शरीर छित्न-भिन्न हो जोनेके कारण वह पापी कर्ण आज पृथ्वीपर पड़ा है? क्या उसके मरनेसे दुर्योधनकी दोनों बाँहें टूट गयीं?

Transliteration

Yudhiṣṭhira uvāca: yaḥ śaurya-madena unmattaḥ Kauravāṇāṁ sabhāyāṁ sadā baḍha-baḍhakar vārtāḥ nirmimīte ca Duryodhanasya atyanta-priyaḥ, kiṁ taṁ pāpinaṁ Karṇaṁ tvam adya jaghānitha? kaccit samāgamya dhanuḥ-prayuktaiḥ tvat-preṣitaiḥ lohitāṅgaiḥ vihagair iva śaraiḥ śete sa pāpaḥ su-vibhinnagātraḥ? kaccid bhagnau Dhārtarāṣṭrasya bāhū?

Translation

Юдхиштхира сказал: «Тот Карна — опьянённый гордыней своей доблести — который в собрании кауравов всегда хвастался и говорил без меры и который был чрезвычайно дорог Дурьодхане: неужели ты сегодня убил этого грешника? Сойдясь с тобой в битве, не лежит ли он теперь на земле, с телом, рассечённым на части небесно-летающими стрелами, что ты выпустил из лука, красными, как кровь, подобными птицам в полёте? И с его падением не сломались ли, словно бы, обе руки Дурьодханы?»

Word by Word

कच्चित्surely? (interrogative particle)

समागम्यhaving come together / having encountered

धनुःbow

प्रयुक्तैःshot/used (as instruments)

त्वत्of you / your

प्रेषितैःsent/loosed

लोहिताङ्गैःwith red-limbed (i.e., red-feathered/with red parts)

इवlike/as

विहङ्गैःbirds

शेतेlies

सःhe

पापःsinful/wicked

सुविभिन्नगात्रःwith limbs completely torn apart

कच्चित्surely? (again, interrogative)

भग्नौbroken (two)

धार्तराष्ट्रस्यof Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s son (Duryodhana)

बाहूtwo arms

Speaker

युधिषछ्िर उवाच

Characters & Entities

Yudhiṣṭhira

Karṇa

Duryodhana

Kauravas

Dhārtarāṣṭra (Duryodhana)

sabhā (royal assembly)

dhanuḥ (bow)

śara (arrows)

pṛthivī (earth/ground)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse frames Karṇa’s fall as the moral consequence of arrogance and complicity in adharma: prowess without restraint becomes ‘śaurya-mada,’ and loyalty to an unrighteous cause brings ruin. It also shows how a warrior’s death can be understood ethically—not merely as a tactical event, but as the collapse of a support-pillar of injustice.

What is happening in the narrative?

Yudhiṣṭhira anxiously questions his ally (contextually, Arjuna) whether Karṇa—Duryodhana’s most valued champion and a notorious boaster in the Kaurava court—has been killed in battle. He vividly imagines Karṇa lying on the ground, limbs shattered by arrows shot from the bow, and adds that Karṇa’s death would be like breaking Duryodhana’s two arms—i.e., destroying his chief strength.