Shloka 9
कर्णपर्व — द्विचक्रिकी युद्धपरिस्थिति: धृष्टद्युम्न- द्रौणि-संघर्षः तथा अर्जुन-रक्षणम्
Chapter 42
कृतश्च॒ समय: पूर्व क्षन्तव्यं विप्रियं तव । ऋते शल्यसहस्त्रेण विजयेयमहं परान् | मित्रद्रोहस्तु पापीयानिति जीवसि साम्प्रतम्
kṛtaś ca samayaḥ pūrvaṃ kṣantavyaṃ vipriyaṃ tava | ṛte śalya-sahasreṇa vijayeyam ahaṃ parān | mitra-drohas tu pāpīyān iti jīvasi sāmpratam ||
“پہلے ہی یہ شرط طے ہو چکی ہے کہ تمہاری ناگوار باتیں بھی مجھے معاف کرنی ہوں گی۔ اے شلیہ! تم جیسے ہزار شلیہ نہ بھی ہوں تو بھی میں دوسرے دشمنوں پر فتح پا سکتا ہوں؛ مگر ‘دوست سے غداری زیادہ بڑا گناہ ہے’—اسی خیال کے باعث تم اب تک زندہ ہو۔”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds an ethical hierarchy: harming or betraying a friend (mitra-droha) is presented as especially grave. Even amid war, where hostility is expected, violating bonds of friendship and prior agreements is treated as a deeper moral fault, and the speaker frames endurance/forgiveness as part of honoring a prior compact.
Sañjaya reports a tense exchange in which a prior understanding is invoked—one party is asked to tolerate unpleasant speech or conduct. Śalya is singled out as extraordinarily formidable (“equal to a thousand”), implying that without Śalya’s obstructive presence or opposition, victory over the remaining enemies would have been achievable; the remark culminates in the moral reflection that betraying a friend is worse, a thought that now weighs on the addressed person.