कर्ण उवाच
त्रयः किलेमे अधना भवन्ति; दासः शिष्यश् चास्वतन्त्रा च नारी ॥
दासस्य पत्नी त्वं धनम् अस्य भद्रे; हीनेश्वरा दासधनं च दासी ॥
प्रविश्य सा नः परिचारैर् भजस्व; तत् ते कार्यं शिष्टम् आवेश्य वेश्म ॥
ईशाः स्म सर्वे तव राजपुत्रि; भवन्ति ते धार्तराष्ट्रा न पार्थाः ॥
अन्यं वृणीष्व पतिम् आशु भामिनि; यस्माद् दास्यं न लभसे देवनेन ॥
अनवद्या वै पतिषु कामवृत्तिर्; नित्यं दास्ये विदितं वै तवास्तु ॥
karṇa uvāca
trayaḥ kileme adhanā bhavanti; dāsaḥ śiṣyaś cāsvatantrā ca nārī ||
dāsasya patnī tvaṃ dhanam asya bhadre; hīneśvarā dāsadhanaṃ ca dāsī ||
praviśya sā naḥ paricārair bhajasva; tat te kāryaṃ śiṣṭam āveśya veśma ||
īśāḥ sma sarve tava rājaputri; bhavanti te dhārtarāṣṭrā na pārthāḥ ||
anyaṃ vṛṇīṣva patim āśu bhāmini; yasmād dāsyaṃ na labhase devanena ||
anavadyā vai patiṣu kāmavṛttir; nityaṃ dāsye viditaṃ vai tavāstu ||
[Karna:] "Three, they say, own no property: a slave, a pupil, and a woman without independence. You are the wife of a slave, and thus his property, O gracious one; deprived of a master, a female slave is the property of a slave. Enter and serve us as a maidservant — that is the task left to you; come into our house. Masters to you now are all of us, O princess; your masters are the sons of Dhritarashtra, not the Parthas. Choose then quickly another husband, O fair one, one under whom you will not incur slavery through gambling; in choosing husbands, freedom of desire is not blameworthy — but let your slavery be known to you forever."
460c51ebda2e · published Jul 16, 2026, 4:12:36 PM UTC
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Karna carries baseness to its limit: having slandered the purest of women, he calls on her to change husbands as a thing changes owners. In this counsel lies the very essence of unrighteousness: it knows nothing of the sanctity of marital fidelity and imagines that the bonds of love can be dissolved like a transaction. It is telling that the one who reviles a wife's devotion is himself the devoted servant of Duryodhana — vice is blind to its own contradiction. The verse teaches that sin, once it has rejected dharma, does not stop but multiplies, going so far as to defile the most sacred things; and that one who counsels betrayal exposes above all his own heart, a stranger to faithfulness. Purity that is slandered is not diminished by slander, but slander stains the lips of the slanderer.