Дрона
तम् आचार्यो ऽब्रवीत् कर्णं शनकैः प्रहसन्न् इव ॥
अभेद्यम् अस्य कवचं युवा चाशुपराक्रमः ॥
उपदिष्टा मया अस्य पितुः कवचधारणा ॥
ताम् एष निखिलां वेत्ति ध्रुवं परपुरंजयः ॥
शक्यं त्व् अस्य धनुश् छेत्तुं ज्यां च बाणैः समाहितैः ॥
अभीशवो हयाश् चैव तथोभौ पार्ष्णिसारथी ॥
tam ācāryo 'bravīt karṇaṃ śanakaiḥ prahasann iva ||
abhedyam asya kavacaṃ yuvā cāśuparākramaḥ ||
upadiṣṭā mayā asya pituḥ kavacadhāraṇā ||
tām eṣa nikhilāṃ vetti dhruvaṃ parapuraṃjayaḥ ||
śakyaṃ tv asya dhanuś chettuṃ jyāṃ ca bāṇaiḥ samāhitaiḥ ||
abhīśavo hayāś caiva tathobhau pārṣṇisārathī ||
To him, to Karna, the teacher spoke quietly, as though smiling: "His armor cannot be pierced, and the youth is swift in valor. I myself taught the wearing of that armor to his father; and he, conqueror of enemy cities, surely knows it in full. Yet it is possible to cut his bow and bowstring with well-aimed arrows, and likewise his reins, his horses, and both his flank charioteers."
091621a29698 · published Jul 19, 2026, 3:30:04 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Here is the teacher's deepest fall: unable to name an honorable way, Drona advises disarming the boy — cutting his bow, bowstring, horses, and charioteers, in order then to finish off the defenseless one. And "as though smiling" — as if ashamed, yet still uttering the shameful counsel. It is significant that the very armor which makes the boy invulnerable was taught by Drona himself to the boy's father: the teacher turns his own knowledge against his student's son. The verse teaches that there is no fall bitterer than that of a man of honor who transgresses dharma for an evil deed; that counsel to overcome by lawlessness — to disarm and finish off — is a stain that not even valor can wash away; and that Drona, turning his own teaching to the boy's destruction, shows to what depths service to untruth reduces a man: knowledge given for good he turns into an instrument of lawless murder.