Shloka 48
कर्णेन युधिष्ठिरानीकविदारणम् / Karṇa’s Breach of Yudhiṣṭhira’s Battle-Line
कालो हि भगवान् रुद्रस्तस्य संवत्सरो धनु: । तस्माद् रौद्री कालरात्रिज्या कृता धनुषो&5जरा
kālo hi bhagavān rudras tasya saṃvatsaro dhanuḥ | tasmād raudrī kālarātrijyā kṛtā dhanuṣo’jarā ||
بھگوان رُدر ہی کال ہے؛ اس لیے کال کا جزو—سنوتسر—اُسی کا کمان ہوا۔ اور کالراتری بھی رُدر کی رَودری شکتی ہے؛ لہٰذا اُسی کو اُس نے کمان کی اَجَر، اَٹوٹ چِلّہ بنا لیا۔
दुर्योधन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents a theologically charged view of inevitability: Time itself is identified with Rudra, and the cycles of time (the year) become his weapon. It suggests that destruction in war can be seen as driven by a cosmic force, raising the ethical tension between human responsibility and the sense of fate.
Duryodhana invokes a terrifying cosmic imagery to interpret the unfolding battle: Rudra-as-Time is imagined as armed with a bow (the year) and an unbreakable bowstring (Kālarātri). The speech functions as a rhetorical intensification of the war’s inevitability and ferocity.