Mahabharata

8. Karna

Kunti's birth name was Pritha but when Kuntibhoj adopted her, he named her Kunti. As a child, she had served the sage Durvasa. Sage Durvasa is known for his anger. He was the sage who had cursed Indra and as a result, they had to churn the sea.

Sage Durvasa was impressed with the way she was serving her. So, he gave her a powerful mantra (kinda like a verse with powerful properties) through which she could acquire a child of any God without getting pregnant. So, out of curiosity, she called for the sun god and got herself a son but she was terrified because she was still unmarried and she can't just take a baby back home or everyone would think that she was having fun with a guy in the ashram (hut) of sage Durvasa. So, she kept the boy in a basket and let him flow along the waves of river Ganga.

When the sun God saw this, he felt bad for his son and gifted him with an impenetrable armour and protective earrings. Whenever someone would attack his son with any weapon, his armour would suddenly appear and as long as Karna had his earrings, he wouldn't die. He practically was immortal.

Adhirath, the royal charioteer of the mahajanapad of Kunti saw a child flowing in the river Ganga and thought that the child was a blessing of river Ganga because Adhirath and his wife Radha were childless. After Radha saw his earrings, she decided to name him Karna, meaning ear.

When Kunti saw the child, she pleaded Adhirath to take the child away. So, he shifted with the child to Hastinapur and of course Kunti didn't know that.

As a child, Karna liked to fight because his blood had the genes of fighting but as Adhirath was of the caste of Sut, which were actually charioteers and not warriors, Adhirath tried to stop him but the way no one could stop the sun, no one could stop Karna.

Karna went to Dronacharya, the teacher of the Kaurava princes but Dronacharya didn't teach him everything. So, he went on to study the scriptures and then he appeared as a Brahmin in front of Parshuram. Parshuram was the guru of Bhishma and Dronacharya. Soon, he had become the favourite disciple of Parshuram, the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu and received information about radioactive weapons like the Brahmastra, Narayanastra and the most powerful of them, the Pashupatastra. There are some mantras or verses through which these weapons can be activated and a guru or the teacher teaches all the disciples everything he can and everything the disciple can learn in his ashram or hut. At this period, the disciples stay away from their parents and learn about the scriptures or warfare. Although Brahmins were supposed to be peaceful, gurus like Vishwamitra, Dronacharya and Parshuram knew how to fight and they used to teach their disciples everything including the warfare.

After an incident, Parshuram came to know that Karna was not a Brahmin and cursed him that Karna would forget all his knowledge when he would need that knowledge the most. I will explain this incident in the next chapter.

Soon, Karna became a great friend of Duryodhan, the eldest son of Dhirtarashtra and Dhirtarashtra was proud of Karna. Shakuni of course approved of their friendship because he knew that Karna was a great influence on Duryodhan.

Karna had defeated the king of Magadh named Jarasandh and became the king of Anga. That's why, he got names like Suryaputra (son of sun), Radheya (son of Radha), Sutputra (son of a sut), Angaraj (king of Anga) and many more.

He always had a principle that he used to perform Suryanamaskar (a yoga which is helpful in absorbing maximum solar energy) on the banks of river Ganga and after that early in the morning and would go to the Shiva temple on the banks of river Ganga and whoever used to ask him for anything after his worshipping, he would donate that person that thing, no matter how much difficult it would be for him. At other times too, if someone asks him for anything, he tries his best to give that person that thing. There are many short stories in the Mahabharata which show his donating nature.

He was the flawed man of the Mahabharata and a great friend of Duryodhan...