Shloka 12

कर्णेन व्यूहविधानम् — Karṇa’s Battle Formation and the Pāṇḍava Counter-Plan

Adhyāya 31

Devanagari script

कृत्वा नसुकरं कर्म गतौ स्वर्गमितोडनघ । तथान्ये पुरुषव्याप्रा: परैर्विनिहता युधि

Transliteration

kṛtvā na sukaraṃ karma gatau svargam ito ’naghāḥ | tathānye puruṣavyāghrāḥ parair vinihatā yudhi ||

Translation

Wika ni Sañjaya: “Matapos maisagawa ang mga gawang hindi madaling maganap, ang mga bayani na walang dungis ay lumisan mula rito patungong langit. Gayon din, ang iba pang mga lalaking tila mga tigre ay nabuwal sa labanan sa kamay ng kanilang mga kaaway—sapagkat nilalamon ng digmaan maging ang makapangyarihan, at dumarating ang kamatayan sa pamamagitan ng mga pakana ng kalaban, gaya ng sinapit ng matatandang mamamanang iyon.”

Word by Word

• {'kṛtvā': 'having done, having accomplished', 'na sukaraṃ': 'not easy to do

• difficult', 'karma': 'deed, act (especially a weighty or valorous action)', 'gatau': 'gone, departed (dual/plural sense in context)', 'svargam': 'to heaven

• the heavenly world', 'itaḥ': 'from here', 'anaghāḥ': 'blameless, faultless (vocative/plural sense)', 'tathā': 'thus, likewise', 'anye': 'others', 'puruṣavyāghrāḥ': 'tigers among men

• great heroes', 'paraiḥ': 'by others

• by enemies', 'vinihatāḥ': 'slain, struck down', 'yudhi': 'in battle'}

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sañjaya
• Svarga (heaven)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse frames battlefield death within a moral-ritual horizon: heroic, arduous action (duskara karma) can lead to svarga, yet war also involves opponents’ stratagems and the vulnerability of even great warriors—highlighting both the ideal of valor and the grim reality of conflict.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that certain blameless heroes, after performing difficult feats, have died and gone to heaven; he generalizes that many other great warriors too have been killed in the fighting by their enemies.