यदा रजस्वलां कृष्णां दःशासनवशे स्थिताम् | सभायां प्राहस: कर्ण क््व ते धर्मस्तदा गत:,“कर्ण! भरी सभामें दुःशासनके वशमें पड़ी हुई रजस्वला द्रौपदीको लक्ष्य करके जब तुमने उपहास किया था, तब तुम्हारा धर्म कहाँ चला गया था?
yadā rajasvalāṃ kṛṣṇāṃ duḥśāsana-vaśe sthitām | sabhāyāṃ prāhasaḥ karṇa kva te dharmas tadā gataḥ ||
सञ्जय उवाच—यदा रजस्वलां कृष्णां दुःशासनवशे स्थिताम् सभायां प्राहसः कर्ण, क्व ते धर्मस्तदा गतः?
संजय उवाच
Moral authority in war or debate is undermined by past complicity in injustice. Sañjaya confronts Karna with ethical inconsistency: one cannot claim dharma while having mocked a vulnerable woman during a grave violation in the assembly.
In the Karṇa Parva, Sañjaya recalls the earlier dice-hall episode to rebuke Karna. He points to Karna’s derision of Draupadī—then under Duḥśāsana’s power in the sabhā—as evidence that Karna abandoned dharma at a decisive moment, foreshadowing the moral reckoning of the war.