Karna teamed up with the Kauravas, not by default as initially thought but out of choice. A choice and a decision that was further strengthened after a chance meeting with a woman who claimed to be his mother. Truth be told, she indeed was his mother, this woman Künthi. She boasted of five other sons, five very brave and strong men with Nakula and Sahadeva being the only exceptions to the rule of ‘winning team persona.’
Karna was abandoned at birth. He was born at a time when Künthi wasn’t married. She was given this formula and curiosity got the better of her when she ventured to try it out. Karna floated off to the shores of some dusty old village where he was picked up by a fisherman and his wife who brought him up their way. Confused Karna merely assumed that he was a fisherman’s kid who could wield a bow, shoot arrows, stand guard all night, ride horses and indulge in a fair bit of fishing if required.
A learned saint appeared one fine afternoon and wished to rest. Karna gladly offered his lap for a pillow. When Karna showed no resistance to deadly bumble bees while the saint napped, it being increasingly clear to the saint that this young boy was the son of a warrior and not a mere fisherman. The saint considered himself tricked into believing this boy being a slave and cursed him. A curse that involved no profanity but a problem. Spake the saint – “At a time that you will need your in-born knowledge the most, thou shall forget it all.”
Karna didn’t figure that this would happen in the battle field at a time when his blooming chariot gets stuck in a ditch with the Pandavas taking aim at him. And so fell Karna, a disappointing end to a brave fighter. They had him fixed right from the start. It’s hard when the whole world conspires against you and you don’t know it till it’s too late. Too late.
Dude. Karna is my most favourite charecter,
As you try to complete the story, i shall compose a separate work centred around karna.
There are six occasions he was killed.
1. Indra, the keeper of heaven, disguised as a begger got his kavacha kundalam, something karna was born with that would make him impenetrable
2. Then, that blasted kundi made him promise that he wouldn’t kill anyone other than Arjuna
3. She also told him not to use Nagasthra for the second time.
4. Some old man cursed him that his charriot would get stuck in a ditch in a crucial hour
5. Karna aims the nagastra for the only time at Arjuna’s head while his charioteer advocated him to aim at the chest. Krishna jumped and the charriot lowered a little and the arrow hit Arjuna’s helmet. The charioteer became angry and left him alone
6. When karna tried to lift the charriot himself Arjuna shot arrows which weren’t enough to take his life because of his dharma. Krishna again disguised as another begger asked for the only thing that karna could give him. The entire fruit of his deeds. After the transfer the arrow went smoothly into his body killing the only man representing dharma.
Posted by vijay | April 27, 2010, 5:59 pm