Mahabharata — Karna Parva, Shloka 9
धर्मरहस्योपदेशः
Dharma-rahasya Instruction: Vows, Truth, and Non-injury
अग्रतो मे कृतो राजा छिन्नसर्वपरिच्छद:
agrato me kṛto rājā chinnasarvaparicchadaḥ
Wika ni Sañjaya: “Sa harap ng aking mga mata, ang hari ay ibinagsak, hinubaran ng lahat ng palamuti at tanda ng pagkahari—naputol ang kanyang ningning at pananggalang.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the fragility of worldly power: royal status depends on external supports (paricchada), which war can sever in an instant. It points to the ethical gravity of conflict—how violence reduces even a ‘king’ to vulnerability, reminding the listener that pride in rank is unstable and subject to karma and circumstance.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra what he is witnessing on the battlefield: a king has been ‘rendered’ in a diminished condition, with all his outward royal trappings cut away—suggesting defeat, humiliation, or the stripping of protective gear and insignia amid the fighting.