Karna


Karna, also known as Vasusena, Anga-Raja, Sutaputra and Radheya, is one of the major characters in the Hindu epic Mahābhārata. He is the son of Surya and princess Kunti. Kunti was granted the boon to bear a child with desired divine qualities from the gods and without much knowledge, Kunti invoked the sun god to confirm it if it was true indeed. Karna was secretly born to an unmarried Kunti in her teenage years, and fearing outrage and backlash from society over her premarital pregnancy, Kunti had to abandon the newly born Karna adrift in a basket on the Ganges. The basket is discovered floating on the Ganges River. He is adopted and raised by foster Suta parents named Radha and Adhiratha Nandana of the charioteer and poet profession working for king Dhritarashtra. Karna grows up to be an accomplished warrior of extraordinary abilities, a gifted speaker and becomes a loyal friend of Duryodhana. He is appointed the king of Anga by Duryodhana. Karna joins the losing Duryodhana side of the Mahabharata war. He is a key antagonist who aims to kill Arjuna but dies in a battle with him during the Kurushetra war.
He is a tragic hero in the Mahabharata, in a manner similar to Aristotle's literary category of "flawed good man". He meets his biological mother late in the epic then discovers that he is the older half-brother of those he is fighting against. Karna is a symbol of someone who is rejected by those who should love him but do not given the circumstances, yet becomes a man of exceptional abilities willing to give his love and life as a loyal friend. His character is developed in the epic to raise and discuss major emotional and dharma dilemmas. His story has inspired many secondary works, poetry and dramatic plays in the Hindu arts tradition, both in India and in southeast Asia.
A regional tradition believes that Karna founded the city of Karnal, in contemporary Haryana.

Nomenclature and epithets

Karṇa is a word found in the Vedic literature, where it means "the ear", "chaff or husk of a grain" or the "helm or rudder". In another context, it refers to a spondee in Sanskrit prosody.
In the Mahabharata and the Puranas, it is the name of a warrior character. Called Vasusena as a child by his foster parents, he became known by the name Karna because of the golden earrings of Surya he used to wear, according to the Sanskrit epics scholar David Slavitt.
The word Karna, states the Indologist Kevin McGrath, signifies "eared, or the ear-ringed one". In section 3.290.5 of the Mahabharata, Karna is described as a baby born with the ear-rings and armoured breastplate, like his father Surya.
File:Karna Ghatotkacha fight sculpture, Kota Rajasthan India.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Karna inside the chariot fighting Ghatotkacha standing over horses, Kota, Rajasthan. This artwork – as Patung Satria Gatotkaca – is also found near the Denpasar airport, Bali, Indonesia.
The second meaning of Karna as "rudder and helm" is also an apt metaphor given Karna's role in steering the war in Book 8 of the epic, where the good Karna confronts the good Arjuna, one of the climax scenes wherein the Mahabharata authors repeatedly deploy the allegories of ocean and boat to embed layers of meanings in the poem. For example, his first entry into the Kurukshetra battlefield is presented as the Makara movement. As Duryodhana's army crumbles each day, the sea and vessel metaphor repeatedly appears in the epic, particularly when Karna is mentioned. As a newborn, Karna's life begins in a basket without a rudder on a river, in circumstances that he neither chose nor had a say. In Book 1, again in the context of Karna, Duryodhana remarks, "the origins of heroes and rivers are indeed difficult to understand".
The name Karna is also symbolically connected to the central aspect of Karna's character as the one who is intensely preoccupied with what others hear and think about him, about his fame, a weakness that others exploit to manipulate him. This "hearing" and "that which is heard", states McGrath makes "Karna" an apt name and subtle reminder of Karna's driving motivation.
Karna was also called with many names. Some of them are:
  • Vasusena – Original name of Karna, means "born with wealth" as he was born with natural armour and earrings.
  • Suryaputra – Son of Surya
  • Radheya – son of Radha.
  • Sutaputra – son of charioteer.
  • Angaraja – king of Anga.
  • Daanaveera – one of charitable nature or one who is exceptionally munificent
  • Vijayadhari – holder of a bow named Vijaya which was gifted by Lord Parashurama.
  • Vaikartana – one who belongs to solar race.
  • Vrisha – one who is truthful in speech and kept his vows.

    Mythology and sources: Mahābhārata

The story of Karna is told in the Mahābhārata, one of the Sanskrit epics from the Indian subcontinent. The work is written in Classical Sanskrit and is a composite work of revisions, editing and interpolations over many centuries. The oldest parts in the surviving version of the text probably date to about 400 BCE. Within Mahabharata, which follows the story within a story style of narration, the account of Karna's birth has been narrated four times.
Karna appears for the first time in the Mahabharata in the verse 1.1.65 of Adi Parvan where he is briefly mentioned through the metaphor of a tree, as someone who is refusing to fight or help in the capture of Krishna. He is presented again in sections 1.2.127–148, and chapter 1.57 of the Adi Parvan. It is here that his earrings "that make his face shine", as well as the divine breastplate he was born with, are mentioned for the first time. This sets him apart as someone special, with gifts no ordinary mortal has. However, later in the epic, the generous Karna gives the "earrings and breastplate" away in charity, thereby becomes a mortal and later dies in a battle with Arjuna.
The story of his unmarried mother getting the child due to her curiosity, his divine connection to the Hindu god Surya, then his birth appears for the first time in the epic in section 1.104.7. The epic uses glowing words to describe Karna, but the presentation here is compressed in 21 shlokas unlike the later books which expand the details. These later sections with more details on Karna's birth and childhood include 3.287, 5.142 and 15.38. According to McGrath, the early presentation of Karna in the Mahabharata is such as if the poets expect the audience to already know the story and love the character of Karna. The text does not belabour the details about Karna in the early sections, rather uses metaphors and metonyms to colourfully remind the audience of the fabric of a character they already are assumed to be aware of. The complete narrative of his life appears for the first time in chapter 1.125.

Manuscripts, many versions

The Mahabharata manuscripts exist in numerous versions, wherein the specifics and details of major characters and episodes vary, often significantly. Except for the sections containing the Bhagavad Gita which is remarkably consistent between the numerous manuscripts, the rest of the epic exists in many versions. The differences between the Northern and Southern recensions are particularly significant, with the Southern manuscripts more profuse and longer. The legends of Karna too appear in many versions, including some versions that have no support in surviving manuscripts. The manuscripts found in the North and South India for the Karna parvan book have "great divergence" in details, though the thematic essence is similar. Scholars have attempted to construct a critical edition, relying mostly on a study of the Bombay edition, the Poona edition, the Calcutta edition and the south Indian editions of the Mahabharata manuscripts. The most accepted version is one prepared by scholars led by Vishnu Sukthankar at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, preserved at the Kyoto University, the Cambridge University and various Indian universities.

Biography

Birth and early life

According to the legend, there was a king of the Yadava dynasty named Shurasena who had a beautiful young daughter named Pritha. A rishi named Durvasa visited the king for a lengthy stay and was housed as his palace guest. Shurasena asked Pritha to ensure that Durvasa's stay was comfortable. On leaving, having been delighted with his stay and her diligent services, Durvasa thanked her and gave her the Siddha mantra, telling her that if she ever wants, she can invoke any deity to give her a child.
Teenage Pritha became curious, wondered if the mantra would really work and, as the sun rose one morning, she initiated the mantra through which she could invoke any divine God being to provide her a son. She called the sun god Surya. He came with a golden glow, dressed up in jewellery and breastplate, and provided her with her first son. Pritha felt confused and ashamed, worried what everyone will think and how she will embarrass her family. At that time, according to Vedic civilization, if a girl gave birth to a child before her marriage, she would be less likely to be married. So, she put the newborn baby in a padded basket, and set it adrift in the small river Ashvanadi by the palace.
Later Kunti got blessed with children Yudhishtra, Bhima, and Arjuna, using this mantra. The same mantra was used by Kunti to allow her co-wife, Madri, to conceive Nakula and Sahdeva. The Spiritual "fathers" of the five Pandavas were Dharma, Vayu, Indra and the twin Ashwini Kumaras.
As the adolescent mother abandons her unwanted child on the river, she laments and the epic verses describe her emotions with heartbreaking poetry, according to the Indologist Patricia Greer.
The basket floats, reaches the river Charmanwati, which carries it to the Yamuna River. The basket floats on and reaches the Ganges River and on it into the kingdom of Anga. There, it is found by a charioteer's wife Radha, who takes the baby Karna to her husband Adhiratha Nandana. They adopt him right away and name him Vasushena. They love him and raise him just like their own son. While he was growing up, his adopting parents let Karna know that they had found and adopted him. This knowledge affects Karna, he feels ashamed that he was abandoned, and this frames his sense of self-identity through the epic.
Karna attends school in Hastinapura, where he studies martial arts under the sages Drona and Kripa. When Drona declines to teach him the knowledge of the Brahmastra weapon, Karna disguises himself as a Brahmin to become a student of Parashurama, an incarnation of the god Vishnu. Upon discovering Karna's deception, Parashurama curses him, declaring that he will forget the secret of the Brahmastra at the critical moment when he wishes to use it against his enemy.
The third Pandava prince Arjuna was Karna's peer and equal. At school and in episodes where his character appears, he is repeatedly rejected, subjected to ridicule and bullied for being the son of a poor family, and particularly for his low birth. The boy Karna came to be known for his solitary habits, hard work, pious yoga before Surya every day, compassion and eager generosity to help anyone in need particularly Brahmins, his gift of speech, and for the pursuit of excellence in whatever he did. Karna is also known as someone who craves for respect, love and attention, who is overly sensitive to criticism, who habitually brags about his skills and martial capabilities, yet is deeply thoughtful and dharmic in critical moments of the epic.