Shloka 8

कर्णपर्व — अध्याय ४०

Karṇa’s Pressure on the Pāñcālas; Duryodhana Disabled; Arjuna’s Counter-Advance

Devanagari script

आयुधस्य परिज्ञानं रुतं च मृगपक्षिणाम्‌ | भारश्षाप्यतिभारकश्न शल्यानां च प्रतिक्रिया

Transliteration

āyudhasya parijñānaṃ rutaṃ ca mṛgapakṣiṇām | bhāraś cāpy atibhārakaś ca śalyānāṃ ca pratikriyā ||

Translation

สัญชัยกล่าวว่า “(เขามี) ความชำนาญรู้เท่าทันอาวุธทั้งหลาย รู้ความหมายแห่งเสียงร้องของสัตว์และนก รู้ประมาณของน้ำหนักทั้งที่พอดีและที่เกินควร และยังรู้วิธีเยียวยาและแก้พิษภัยแห่งบาดแผลที่เกิดจากลูกศรและเสี้ยนคม”

Word by Word

आयुधस्यof the weapon

परिज्ञानम्recognition/knowledge

रुतम्cry/call (sound)

चand

मृगपक्षिणाम्of beasts and birds

भारःweight/burden

शापिhe cursed

अतिभारकःexcessively heavy

शल्यानाम्of splinters/thorns (darts)

चand

प्रतिक्रियाcounteraction/remedy

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

Sañjaya

āyudha (weapons)

mṛga (beasts)

pakṣi (birds)

śalya (splinters/darts/foreign bodies in wounds)

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 highlights the ideal of comprehensive competence in a warrior’s world: mastery of arms, attentiveness to signs in nature, and practical wisdom about bodily limits and medical remedies. Ethically, it suggests that power in war is not only aggression but also disciplined knowledge and responsibility toward life and injury.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya is describing a person’s capabilities and training in the context of the Karṇa Parva’s battlefield narrative—enumerating skills such as weapon-expertise, interpreting animal and bird calls (often treated as omens), judging burdens, and knowing treatments for wounds caused by embedded missiles or splinters.