Is Karna a valiant hero or a tragic hero? The debate still goes on generations after generations. He was a virtuous soul born in a legendary kingdom, skilled warrior with unparalleled generosity and yet, never enjoyed his privileges and died fighting against his own kith and kin. This article embarks on a journey in search of reasons and highlights key incidents from epics involving Karna’s life, choice and fate.
Life Story
Kunti Devi, a princess, while testing a mantra learnt from sage Durvasa, invoked the Sun god and received a child. The child was born with ear-rings and armor shield. As she was not married then, she had to give up the child and left him in a basket in the Ganges water.
The floating basket was discovered by Radha and Adhiratha Nandana, a charioteer for King Dhritarashtra of Hastinapur (and father of the one hundred Kauravas).
Karna’s quench for knowledge and skills drove him to seek and learn. He went under the disguise of a Brahman and learnt to wield the Brahmastra from sage Parasurama.
In the arena of young Pandava and Kaurava princes exhibiting their skills, Karna displayed his valor and earned Duryodhana’s friendship. Duryodhana honored Karna by giving the Anga Kingdom to rule.
As a reciprocation of friendship and loyalty, Karna sided the wrong doings of Duryodhana and was killed by the hands of Arjuna in the Kurukshethra war.
Karna also was known for his unparalleled generosity and charity to anyone who approached him.
Curse
Parasurama (who usually doesn’t teach Kshathriyas) happened to infer that Karna could only be a Kshathriya as he endured the pain of an insect sting. Indra took the form of the insect to perform this trick and expose Karna’s identity. The guru cursed that Karna can’t deploy the Brahmastra when he needed the most.
Later Karna also incurred the curse of a Brahmin when he killed the Brahmin’s cow, that he also will be killed in a helpless state.
It is also believed that Karna was cursed by mother Earth as he attempted to recover oil spilt by a little boy back to his bowl. As the boy was adamant to get back his spilled oil and not a replacement, Karna squeezed the soil so hard to recover every drop of oil. This caused the mother earth to suffer in-between his fists. She cursed that she will hold his chariot wheel tight as his fists, at a crucial instance.
Nobleness
Karna was a true, kind hearted and generous person. He treated with respect even who approached him to deceive and they end up gracing him for his character. Two such incidents are citied here:
Karna couldn’t be slain with his armor and ear-rings on. So, Lord Indra (as Arjuna’s father) went to Karna to get it as charity as he never rejects anyone seeking help. Surya, in an attempt to protect his son, had warned Karna ahead about Lord Indra’s motive. However, Karna gladly obliged to Indra’s request and cut out his ear-rings and armor. Amazed by his pure heart and selflessness, Lord Indra voluntarily granted the Naga-astra to Karna.
Lord Krishna was not just impressed with Karna’s character, he shed tears as he had to slay him for fighting on the side of adharma. When Arjuna’s arrows failed to kill Arjuna, Krishna realized that the good deeds of Karna was protecting him as a shield. Krishna in disguise, approached Karna for charity. Karna requested him to ask for anything he can give at that moment of life-death. When Krishna asked the benefits of his good deeds as charity, Karna used his own blood as water to pass on his merits. It is said that Karna used the arrow from his heart and not from any other part to fetch blood. Even in his last moments, Karna gave charity with all his heart. Krishna was moved by Karna’s gesture and wanted to give him a boon. In reciprocation, Karna asked for a charitable and merciful heart in all his later births. Again, Lord Krishna was moved with his request and blessed him saying that he will have the heart and also the wealth to give away, if he is reborn. Lord Krishna wished that Karna should witness his Viswaroopa darshan during his dying moments and ultimately attained moksha.
The reason
After reading instances of his virtue, we are left to wonder why did Karna have to compromise and rule a small Anga kingdom as he was the rightful heir to the entire Hastinapur kingdom. He was the one person who could have stopped the Kurukshethra war. If Karna’s true identity was revealed (that he requested Kunti/Krishna not to divulge to anyone) as the eldest Pandava, Karna would have been the King and Duryodhana would not have objected as he was his true friend.
Karna choose loyalty and gratitude over his intelligence. Duryodhana blindly listened and followed Karna’s words. With such an influence, Karna could have kept his friend from his adharma activities and thereby kept alive his friend and also the 99 brothers. Karna developed a hatred for his own siblings which deep down knew was not right.
Did you know?
Karna’s Previous Birth
Karna lived as an asuran named Dambhodbhava in his previous birth. He did severe penance to the Sun god, Surya and asked the boon of immortality. As Surya refused to offer immortality, Dambhodbhava thought of tricking the sun god and came up with a cunning request.
He said that he has to be protected by a thousand armors and laid the following conditions:
1. The thousand armors can be broken only by someone who performs penance for a thousand years!
2. Whoever breaks the armor should die immediately!
Surya though granted the boon, was worried that Dambhodbhava was not going to use his powers for good. Surya sought Lord Vishnu’s help to save earth by eliminating adharma.
As Surya anticipated, Dambhodbhava started wreaking havoc on people as there no way of defeating him. People started calling him Sahasrakavacha (meaning one who has a thousand armors).
Murti, the daughter of Daksha Prajapati prayed to Lord Vishnu to help the people. Lord Vishnu pleased with her blessed her with twins – Narayana and Nara. They were great Shiva devotees who grew up learning the art of warfare and were inseparable.
As time went on, Sahasrakavacha started attacking the forest areas where Narayana and Nara were staying. As Nara was meditating, Narayana went and challenged Sahasrakavacha for a fight.
As the fight went on, Sahasrakavacha realized that the penance of Nara was giving Narayana strength. As Sahasrakavacha’s first armor broke he realized that Nara and Narayana were for all purposes one. They were just two persons having the same soul. But Sahasrakavacha was not too worried. He had lost one of his armors. He watched in glee as Narayana dropped dead, the minute one of his armors broke!
As Narayana fell down dead, Nara came running towards him. By his years of penance and pleasing Lord Shiva, he had gained the Maha Mritunjaya mantra – a mantra which brought back dead to life. Now Nara took the fighting with Sahasrakavacha while Narayana meditated! After thousand years, Nara broke another armor and dropped dead while Narayana came back and revived him. This went on until 999 armors were down. Sahasrakavacha realized that he could never beat the two brothers and ran away seeking refuge with Surya. When Nara approached Surya to give him up, Surya did not since he was protecting his devotee. Nara cursed Surya to be born as a human for this act and Surya accepted the curse for his devotee.
All this happened at the end of Treta yuga. Immediately after Surya refused to part with Sahasrakavacha, the Treta Yuga ended and the Dwapara Yuga started. To fulfil the promise to destroying Sahasrakavacha, Narayana and Nara were reborn – this time as Krishna and Arjuna.
Due to the curse, Dambhodbhava with Surya’s amsam (absolute portion) within him was born as Karna, the eldest son of Kunti! with one of remaining armor as a natural protection, the last one left of Sahasrakavacha.
As Arjuna would have died if he had been the one to remove the armor, Krishna’s advised Lord Indra (Arjuna’s father) to approach Karna to get his last armor as charity.
As Karna was actually the monster Dambodbhava in his previous life, he led a very difficult life to pay for all the sins committed by him in his past life. But Karna also the Sun God inside him, so Karna was a hero as well! It was Karna’s karma from his previous life that he had to be with Duryodhana and take part of the all the evil things he did. But the Surya in him made him brave, strong, fearless and charitable. It brought him long lasting fame.
Irrespective of how Karna was considered during his time, we now have around 21 temples across India, where he is worshipped as God.
We can infer that setting aside how the society treats an Individual, If an Individual follows the rightful path, they reap great benefits. On the contrary, having virtuous character and siding by adharma will only lead to self-destruction.
End-Note
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