Shloka 17
कर्णेन मे महाबाहो सर्वसैन्यस्यथ पश्यत:
sañjaya uvāca — karṇena me mahābāho sarvasainyasya atha paśyataḥ; mahādhanurdhara mahābāho yuddhe yatnapūrvakaṃ lagna āsam, kintu karṇena sarvasainyasya paśyataḥ svabāṇaiḥ mama kavaca-dhvaja-dhanuḥ-śakti-aśva-bāṇānāṃ khaṇḍa-khaṇḍaṃ kṛtam.
Sinabi ni Sañjaya: “O makapangyarihang may malalakas na bisig! Habang nakatingin ang buong hukbo, winasak ni Karṇa sa pamamagitan ng kanyang mga palaso ang aking baluti, ang aking watawat, ang aking busog, ang aking sibat, ang aking mga kabayo, at ang aking mga palaso—pinagpira-piraso niya ang lahat. Bagama’t buong sikap akong nakikipaglaban, nabasag ng kanyang lakas ang aking mga panangga sa harap ng lahat.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the tension between personal effort (yatna) and overpowering force on the battlefield: even a diligent warrior can be undone when confronted by a superior archer. Ethically, it underscores how public witnessing (sarvasainyasya paśyataḥ) shapes honor and reputation in kṣatriya warfare.
Sanjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that Karna, in full view of the assembled army, used his arrows to smash the narrator’s key martial supports—armor, standard, weapons, horses, and arrows—reducing them to fragments despite the narrator’s strenuous engagement in combat.