Lesser-known stories about Karna

A look at the layers of complexity surrounding this enigmatic character

Karna is probably the most human of all characters in the Mahabharata. Always the underdog, he struggles valiantly against the ‘system’ to progress and prove himself as a great warrior. However, Fate - and the evil ‘system’ - have other plans for him, and he is slayed on the Kurukshetra battlefield by his half-brother, Arjuna.

The stories about his attempt to win Draupadi’s hand at her Swayamvara (competition where the bride chooses the groom) and his rivalry with the Pandavas are well-known, and I shall not go into those here. Instead, let’s take a look at some lesser-known stories about Karna.

Birth

Karna was born of Kunti when she was still in her mid-teens. Thus, he was the eldest of the Pandavas, but neither he nor the Pandavas knew of this fact until it was too late.

Kunti was a young girl living with her father, Raja Kuntibhoja in her palace. The Raja was visited by the irascible Rishi Durvasa who was known to be extremely short-tempered. Kunti, however, waits on the Rishi patiently and caters to his every whim, and gives him no opportunity for anger.

Pleased by her attention and devotion, the Rishi teaches the young Kunti a powerful mantra by which she could summon any deity she wanted and bear a child with that deity. Curious, and not thinking through the consequences, Kunti invokes the Sun God.

The Sun God appears, blazing and incandescent. Petrified, Kunti bows to Him and pleads that she was only testing the mantra out. However, the Rishi’s boon must take effect, so the Sun God bears a child upon Kunti. He ensures that her virginity remains intact after the birth so that no dishonor befalls the young maiden.

The child is born with a gleaming plate of armor and earrings attached to his body. Kunti sets the child afloat on a riven in a cradle, where he is found and reared by a charioteer and named Karna due to his earrings.

Backstory

Several eons earlier, there was a demon Asura who prayed to Lord Shiva. The Lord, pleased, agreed to grant the Asura a boon. The Asura asked to be covered with 1,000 layers of armor, with the condition that anyone who wanted to defeat him would have to destroy each of these 1,000 layers individually. The attacker would have to perform penance for a year and battle for another year to destroy a single layer of armor.

Lord Shiva granted the boon, and the Asura was henceforth known as Sahasrakavacha - the one with a thousand armors. He went on a rampage and terrorized the populace, feeling invincible.

However, Nara and Narayana - the twin divine beings - took turns to perform penance while the other battled Sahasrakavacha. This way, by constantly battling with the Asura, they were able to destroy 999 layers of armor.

Frightened, the Asura sought the help of the Sun God for protection. Thus, from the Sun God was born Karna with the armor - the final layer of armor from Sahasrakavacha. Nara and Narayana were born as Arjuna and Sri Krishna respectively, to complete the task of destroying Sahasrakavacha in the form of Karna.

Curses

Karna is portrayed as a powerful hero, whom fate and circumstances push into misery and defeat. He incurs two curses during his life, which play a vital role in his defeat in the battle of Kurukshetra.

The Curse of Parashurama

When Karna goes to Parashurama to learn the science of weapons, he speaks a half-truth about his birth and claims to be a Brahmin. Once, while Parashurama was asleep with his head on Karna’s lap, a huge insect bites Karna and gouges a deep hole in his thigh. Despite feeling excruciating pain, Karna stays silent and motionless so as to not wake up his sleeping master. When Parashurama eventually wakes up from his slumber and sees the deep wound on the thigh of his pupil, he realizes that Karna must be a Kshatriya and not a Brahmana, since no Brahmana could withstand such pain.

Furious at being lied to, Parashurama curses Karna that all the knowledge that he received from his master would fail him when he needed it most, at a critical juncture in the war. This curse came to pass in the Kurukshetra war, when Karna faced Arjuna, but was unable to recall the mantras needed to use his celestial weapons

The Curse of Mother Earth

Once, as Karna was riding through the streets of his kingdom, a young child was running in the street holding a cup of clarified butter (ghee). The child tripped and fell, and the ghee spilt into the mud. The child started crying because his mother would scold him for wasting the ghee.

Seeing this, Karna took up a fistful of the ghee-soaked mud, and, with his immense strength, squeezed it hard to release the ghee back into the cup. The child was happy, and gleefully ran back home with the now-restored cup of ghee.

However, Mother Earth was not happy! She chastised Karna for denying her what was rightfully her portion of ghee, and cursed Karna that in a crucial moment, his chariot’s wheel would get stuck in the mud, and he would be unable to release it. This, too, came to pass during the fateful Kurukshetra war, as Karna’s chariot wheel gets stuck in the mud. He tried to release it, but it would not budge, and he was slain by Arjuna when unarmed and distracted.

Apart from anecdotes and stories, the Mahabharata is a rich and textured epic with a lot of food-for-thought on philosophy and human nature. It is quite possibly satirical and is definitely a case of ‘history being written by the victors’.

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