Shloka 293
कर्णपरर्वणि त्रयोचत्वारिंशदध्यायः (Karṇa-parva Adhyāya 43) — Kṛṣṇa’s Battlefield Assessment and the Reversal Around Bhīma
सबालवृद्धा: क्रन्दन्तस्तेषु धर्म: कथं भवेत् । “जो शाकलनिवासी आबालवृद्ध नर-नारी मदिरासे उन्मत्त हो चिल्ला-चिल्लाकर ऐसी गाथाएँ गाया करते हैं, उनमें धर्म कैसे रह सकता है?”
sabālavṛddhāḥ krandantas teṣu dharmaḥ kathaṃ bhavet
सबालवृद्धाः क्रन्दन्तस्तेषु धर्मः कथं भवेत् । यत्र शाकलवासिनो नरनार्यः सर्वेऽपि मदिरोन्मत्ताः क्रोशन्तो गाथाः गायन्ति, तत्र धर्मः कथं स्थास्यति?
कर्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
Karna frames dharma as inseparable from social restraint and humane conduct: where intoxication, loud disorder, and the suffering cries of the vulnerable prevail, moral order cannot be sustained.
Karna is speaking critically about a community (associated with Śākala in the accompanying gloss), portraying it as morally degraded—people of all ages intoxicated and shouting—using this as evidence that dharma is absent there.