कर्णस् तु केकयान् भ्रातॄन् पञ्च लोहितकध्वजान् ॥
द्रोणायाभिमुखं याताञ् शरवर्षैर् अवारयत् ॥
ते चैनं भृशसंक्रुद्धाः शरव्रातैर् अवाकिरन् ॥
स च तांश् छादयाम् आस शरजालैः पुनः पुनः ॥
नैव कर्णो न ते पञ्च ददृशुर् बाणसंवृताः ॥
साश्वसूतध्वजरथाः परस्परशराचिताः ॥
karṇas tu kekayān bhrātṝn pañca lohitakadhvajān ||
droṇāyābhimukhaṃ yātāñ śaravarṣair avārayat ||
te cainaṃ bhṛśasaṃkruddhāḥ śaravrātair avākiran ||
sa ca tāṃś chādayām āsa śarajālaiḥ punaḥ punaḥ ||
naiva karṇo na te pañca dadṛśur bāṇasaṃvṛtāḥ ||
sāśvasūtadhvajarathāḥ parasparaśarācitāḥ ||
Karna, indeed, held back with showers of arrows the five Kekaya brothers with crimson banners, who were advancing straight at Drona. And they, in fierce fury, showered him with clouds of arrows; and he shrouded them with webs of arrows time after time. No longer were Karna or those five visible, covered by arrows — with their horses, charioteers, banners, and chariots studded with each other's arrows.
22d379141dc1 · published Jul 19, 2026, 3:11:21 PM UTC
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Karna alone stands against five brothers — and a mutual rain of arrows hides them all from sight, so that not one can be told apart from the five. In this image of universal obscuring, the limit of ferocity reveals itself: men vanish behind the very clouds of their own arrows. It is telling that one stands equal against five — the measure of Karna's greatness. The verse teaches that the valor of one can outweigh many, and then the outcome is decided not by number; that in the fury of mutual destruction the combatants themselves disappear, swallowed up by it; and that the tradition, depicting this mutual invisibility, reminds us: in the crucible of strife the very distinguishing of faces is extinguished, and man is lost in the cloud of enmity he himself has raised.