In the previous episode, we had witnessed the meaning of “Shalya-Saarathyam”, wherein King Shalya accepted Duryodhana’s request of charioteering for Karna during the seventeenth day of the Kurukshetra war. King Shalya’s acceptance comes with an important condition – Whatever King Shalya thinks, he would say it to Karna without mincing his words! Duryodhana accepts King Shalya’s condition without knowing the nuances behind it. But the point here is that, King Shalya is going to constantly keep demotivating Karna, instead of motivating him to go for an intense fight. Thus, as the dawn of the seventeenth day arrives, Karna gets into the chariot and is about to lead the army to the battlefield. At this point, there are several bad omens that are appearing in front of Karna, including one of the chariot’s horses tripping and falling on the ground, without being able to get up and proceed further. Upon seeing this, King Shalya cautions Karna thus, “Oh Karna! Look! You’ve started on a mission today, but somehow something is preventing you from proceeding forward. This horse falling down is a very unusual thing that has happened. This shows that you’re going to lose this war today!”
King Shalya continues thus, “Oh Karna! Please think again – Do you still need to fight Arjuna in this war? Several great kings and warriors around you have died. If you proceed with this war today, you are also going to meet the same fate as them. So I would suggest that you refrain from this war and go away from this battlefield. This would be good for you as well as for the others!” To this, Karna replies thus, “Oh King Shalya! You’ve not seen my prowess till date! Today is going to be a decisive day of this war. The world is going to see how Karna is going to emerge victorious. Arjuna might have been instrumental in killing several great warriors from our side. But today he will have to do a lot of answering for the crime that he has committed so far. My sharp arrows are going to make Arjuna answer a lot of tough questions on the battlefield!”
As Karna makes this bold statement, King Shalya gets irritated. Normally King Shalya only likes those people who keep praising him. But now, Karna is not praising King Shalya here. He’s proclaiming his own prowess, isn’t he? King Shalya gets irked because of this and replies back thus, “Oh son of a charioteer (Raadheya)! You’re talking so much about Arjuna and how you’re going to win over him. However, the moment you see Arjuna on the battlefield, I know how you will start trembling with fear! If Bheemasena gives you one tight slap on your face, all your teeth will start falling down. After this, will you even be able to talk this way? If Yudishtra and Sahadeva come with their swords near you to fight, you will not be able to withstand them! Oh Karna! All your motivational talks are only off the battlefield! When it matters the most, you will start succumbing to Arjuna’s prowess and I’ve seen this happen several times even in these sixteen days of war at Kurukshetra! Hence, rather than proclaiming and talking so much about yourself, think what is practically possible!”
As King Shalya says thus, this turns into a huge abuse and an insult for Karna! First of all, King Shalya wantedly addresses Karna as “Raadheya” (Charioteer’s son), upon sitting as a charioteer for him! This itself is a great irony! Moreover, rather than giving motivation, King Shalya is only demotivating Karna from advancing further! By looking at all this, Karna thinks within himself thus, “Oh wow! I should have kept my mouth shut! I shouldn’t have asked Duryodhana to go and talk with this Shalya! He is not only a useless brat, but is also trying to pull me down at every occasion! This is not going to be good for me on the battlefield! If this Shalya is talking like this even before the battle begins, I can’t even imagine how he will talk when the battle is going on intensely!”
We might be wondering why King Shalya is behaving like this, despite him being a very noble person by heart. Readers might remember this – Before the war commenced, Yudishtra met King Shalya and obtained a boon. Actually, King Shalya should have been on the Paandava camp and unfortunately due to Duryodhana’s smart trick, King Shalya had to go into the Kaurava side. However, Yudishtra had requested King Shalya to purposefully demotivate Karna, in order to make Arjuna win, if such a situation unfolds! Now that situation has exactly come and it is the duty of King Shalya to honour Yudishtra’s request!
So with this, the seventeenth day proceedings at Kurukshetra commence and for today, let us understand up to this point. We shall wait till the next episode to continue this discussion further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 