Karna Parva — The conversation between Karna and Shalya

Shalya said These are but your ravings, O Karna that you give vent to with regard to your enemies. But I can without a thousand Karnas defeat my foe in battle.

Sanjaya said To the king of Madras, who was speaking such harsh words Karna, of unpleasant looks, spoke words again twice as harsh.

Karna said O king of Madras, listen attentively to what I heard recited in the presence of Dhritarashtra.

In Dhritarashtra's house the Brahmanas used to describe many pleasant regions and the lives of many ancient kings.

One aged and leading Brahmana among them, while recounting the ancient historian, said thus blaring the Balhikas and Madrakas.

One should always avoid the impure and impious Balhikas who live away from Himavat and Ganga, Sarasvati, Yamuna and Kurukshetra and the Sindhu with its five tributaries.

I remember from my youth that a slaughter ground for kine and the cellars for wine mark out the gates of the palaces of Balhika kings.

For some secret work I had to live with them. On account of this living I know them very well.

There is a town of the name of Shakala, a river by the name of Apaga and a clan of the Balhikas known as Jarttikas. Their conduct is very reprehensible.

They drink the liquor Ganda and eat friend barley with it. They also eat beef with garlics. They also take flour with meat and boiled rice that is bought of others. They are shorn of all good practices.

Their women all drink and are nude and laugh and dance, outside the walls of the houses in cities, with garlands and unguents, singing under the influence of liquor various obscene songs like the bray of the ass or the bleat of lambs. They freely mix and intercourse with all. Inebrite they address one another with endearing terms.

The fallen Balhika women, unobservant of restrictions even on sacred days, dance and exclaim “Alas! our husband, our lord is dead!"

One of those wicked Balhikas who lived amongst them and and for time in Kurujangala burst out with cheerless heart saying-

"Surely that big and fair (Balhika maiden) dressed in her blankets is thinking of me her Balhika lover, who am living in Kurujangala at the time of her going to bed.

some Crossing the Sutlej, the charming Iravati and coming to my own country when shall I look at those beautiful women with thick frontal bones, with shining circles of red arsenic on their foreheads, with tinges of red, black collyrium on their eyes and their beautiful forms dressed in blankets and skins and themselves uttering shrill cries?

When shall I be happy in the company of those inebriate women amid the sound of drums and kettle-drums and conches sweet as the brays of asses and cries of camels and mules?

When shall I be in the midst of those women who live on cakes of flour and meat and balls of barley and skimmed milk in the forest having pleasant paths of Shami, Pilu and Karira?

When shall I, surrounded by my countrymen, muster strong on the high roads, fall upon the passers by, carry away their robes and attires and beat them repeatedly?

What man is there who will live willingly even for a moment in the midst of Bahikas who are so fallen, wicked and of fraudulent conduct?

Thus did the Brahmanas describe the vile Balhikas, a sixty of whose merit and demerit, you possess, O Shalya.

Having said this the pious Brahmana said some thing about the wicked Bahikas. Hear what I say.

In the large and populous city of Shakala a Rakshasa woman used to sing on every fourteenth day of the dark half of the month in accompaniment with a drum.

When shall I next sing the songs of the Bahikas in this town of Shakala having fed me full with beef and drunk the Gada liquor. Decked with ornaments when shall I with these huge women and maidens feed upon a large number of sheep, a quantity of pork and beef and the meat of fowls, asses and camels. In vain do they live who do not eat the sheep.

Thus O Shalya, the young and old inhabitants of Sakala, sing and cry under the influence of liquor. How can there by virtue among such people?

You should know this. I will now recount to you again what another Brahmana said to us in the Kuru court.

There where the forests of Pilus stand and the five rivers Shatadru, Vipasha, Iravati, Chandrabhaga and Vitasta and which have the Sindhu for their sixty flow there in those region is situated the Province called the Arattas distant from Himavat. The Province is shorn of virtue and religion. No one should there.

The celestials, the ancestral manes and the Brahmanas never accept gifts from fallen persons, from those that are begotten by Sudras upon women of other castes and from Bahikas who never perform Yajnas and are greatly irreligious.

This the learned Brahmana also said in the Kuru Court. The Balhikas, who have no feelings of revulsion, take their food in deep wooden vessels, earthen plates in vessels that have been licked by dogs and those that have been stained with pounded barely and other corn. They drink the milk of sheep, camels and asses and cat curds and other preparations of those various kinds of milk.

There is a number of bastards among those fallen people. There is no food or no milk that they do not take. The ignorant Aratta Bahikas should always be avoided.

You should always know this, O Shalya. I will now speak to you what another Brahmana said in the Kuru court.

How can a man attain to the celestial region having drunk milk in the town called Yugandhara and lived in the place called Achyutastala and bathed in the spot called Bhutilaya.

No respectable man should live even for two days where the five rivers flow just after issuing from the mountains and where live Aratta Balhikas.

There are two Pishachas in the river Vipasha named Bahi and Hika. The Bahikas are the offspring of those two Pishchas. They are not creatures created by God. Being of such a low birth how can they know the duties laid down in the scriptures?

The Karaskaras, the Mahishkas, the Kurandas, the Keralas, the Karkotakas, the Virakas and other people who have no religion should always be avoided by men.

A Rakshasa woman of huge hips, thus spoke to a Brahman, who once went to that country for bathing in a sacred water and passed a single night there.

This Province passes under the name of Arattas. And the people who live there are called Balhikas. The Brahmanas of the lowest order also live there from a very ancient time.

They are ignorant of the Vedas and void of knowledge. They do not perform Yajnas nor can help others in them. They are all fallen and many of them have been begotten by Sudras upon other caste girls; the gods never accept gifts from them.

The Prasthalas, the Madras, the Gandharvas, the Arattas, Khasas, the Vasatis, the Sindhus and the Sauviras also follow these reprehensible practices. upon other caste girls; the gods never accept gifts from them.

The Prasthalas, the Madras, the Gandharvas, the Arattas, Khasas, the Vasatis, the Sindhus and the Sauviras also follow these reprehensible practices.