Mahabharata — Karna Parva, Shloka 1
Adhyāya 8: Saṃprahāra-varṇana and Bhīma–Kṣemadhūrti Dvipa-Yuddha
Combat Description and Elephant Duel
अपन बक। ] अति्ऑशा:< अष्टमो< ध्याय: धृतराष्ट्रका विलाप जनमेजय उवाच श्रुत्वा कर्ण हत॑ युद्धे पुत्रांश्षेव निपातितान् । नरेन्द्र: किंचिदाश्व॒स्तो द्विजश्रेष्ठ किमब्रवीत्
janamejaya uvāca | śrutvā karṇa-hataṁ yuddhe putrāṁś caiva nipātitān | narendraḥ kiṁcid āśvasto dvija-śreṣṭha kim abravīt ||
Sinabi ni Janamejaya: “O pinakadakila sa mga Brahmin, nang marinig ni Haring Dhṛtarāṣṭra na napatay si Karṇa sa digmaan at bumagsak din ang kanyang mga anak, at nang matapos siyang mawalan ng malay ay bahagya siyang nakabawi, ano ang kanyang sinabi?”
जनमेजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames the ethical weight of war through its immediate human consequence: even a king is undone by grief when confronted with the deaths of allies and children. It prepares the reader to hear Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s lament as a moral reflection on attachment, loss, and the cost of adharma-driven conflict.
Janamejaya asks the Brahmin narrator to report Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s words after he hears that Karṇa has been killed and that his sons have fallen in battle, and after he regains partial composure from shock.