The Son of The Sun

The initial reaction that I receive when I utter the name Karna is that of sympathy, often accompanied by a comparison (often uncalled-for) with his half-brother, Arjun. Indeed, Karna was a great donor (daataKorno, or a donor as generous as Karna, is a phrase often used in Bengali to emphasise generosity) and a very loyal friend. He might not have done the best possible thing at times (calling Draupadi a prostitute in public, for example), but he was someone people usually respected a lot.

There are a few side aspects as well. People generally sympathise with Karna because he was rejected at birth by Kunti, and was rejected by Draupadi in her swayamvar (though she later went on to confess that she had the hots for our hero). What people casually overlook that despite the rather humble background of his foster-parents, Karna was given an entire kingdom (Anga, present-day Jharkhand) at a very young age. He was a friend of Duryodhan; he was generally loved by all; and he was born with supposedly impregnable kavach (armour) and kundal (earrings).

I've found this rather intriguing, by the way: though the Pandavs were all exceptional people in one way or the other (sons of Gods were meant to be exceptional), none of them actually bore a physical appendage from birth. Also, I understand an impregnable armour, but why were tough earrings so important? To protect the organs named after himself?

I do not have a problem with all this. What I do really have a problem with is some people trying to establish the fact that Karna was as good a warrior as Arjun, if not better, and had he been lucky, he might have defeated Arjun on that fateful seventeenth day of The War.

Luck? Let us investigate. Let us find out the factors generally seen as reasons for Karna's defeat and analyse them:

Drona refusing to teach him:
This was the pre-reservation era, so Drona could afford the luxury of rejecting students from a "lower" caste at his will. He had done it with Ekalavya, and now he sought out Karna. Of course, Drona was someone with one of the most spectacular births ever (mentioned in details here), so he was possibly justified.

However, did it do Karna any real harm? He went to Parashuram, fooled him to believe that he was a Brahmin and took lessons from him. Parashuram's students included people of no less than Bhishma and Drona (albeit at earlier times), so he didn't really lose out on a lot as a result of Drona's refusal.

Curse 1: Parashuram
The story goes like this: Parashuram was once sleeping with his head rested on Karna's lap (I assume that it was the softest option he could find). An insect stung Karna and sucked blood (from a place not covered by his armour, or, more importantly, earrings), and Karna tolerated the immense pain with the noble intention of not letting his teacher wake up.

Little did he know that by doing so, he had actually exceeded the universally accepted endurance cut-off for Brahmins and had entered into the Kshatriya domain. His teacher cast one look at him, and took out his endurance chart, as shown below:

The illustrious axe-man thus cursed his student that he shall forget his lessons in the moment he shall need them most.

Now, put yourself in an identical situation:
1. You've been cursed that you shall not remember organic chemistry in the JEE hall.
2. You're allowed to carry study material inside the hall.
3. You've got years and years to prepare that study material.
How would you have solved the issue? And I'm not even mentioning Ghajini here, since Harvard MBA graduates who write diaries in Hindi don't really count.

Curse 2: random Brahmin
Karna was not a good student of history, otherwise he would have taken deer-hunting more seriously. The courses of the two great epics of our nation have been dictated by two shots at what the shooters thought were deer: as a result Dasharath and Pandu were cursed, and we all know the rest.

He made the same error, and shot the cow of a Brahmin. The Brahmin, instead of asking for his cow to be replaced, cursed Karna that when he would be in dire straits in a war, the wheel(s) of his chariot shall get embedded in the earth.

This could have been, once again, solved easily:
1. He could have used back-up chariots. If one went down, just shift to the next one.
2. He could have shared someone else's chariot. It wouldn't have been his chariot.
3. Easiest of all, he could have trained himself to ride something without wheels. Like what? Remember, he was the king of Anga, modern-day Jharkhand: which is where the Dalma Hills are, and anyone in West Bengal is aware of the headlines the oversized Dalma fauna makes. Come on, even the King of Gods used an elephant, and there were at least two super-elephants in Kurukshetra itself - used by Bhagadatta and Shalwa (is this the one who had rejected Amba?). What stopped Karna from training himself from fighting on elephant-back? And even if we assume that he suffered from serious vertigo, he could at least have taken up cavalry training - something without wheels.

The conversation with Kunti:
I won't go into the details of this. True, Kunti, whose brains were surpassed by only Krishna's, chose the best possible moment to come to his eldest son. Karna vowed that he wouldn't kill any of the four Pandavs barring Arjun. It's true that Karna had actually spared all four of them at various points of time during the war, and had, say, Yudhishthir been down during the war, a lot of things would've happened differently. For example, Bheem might have been crowned king in the end, Draupadi would have had the same partner 20% more frequently, and the way up to heaven in the end would've ended in a remarkable anticlimax.

But then, the duel with Arjun would have happened anyway, and his own fate would have remained the same in the end.

Giving away the kavach and kundal:
We all know the tale: to save his son Arjun Indra needed to acquire Karna's kavach and mysterious kundal. Our hero's father anticipated this, and warned Karna about this. When he learnt that Karna cannot refuse anyone anything, he asked Karna to ask for something in return: Indra's ekpurushghatini (ekaghni in some versions) weapon, which roughly translates to "killer of exactly one person".

The barter was made. Karna severed his twin protections (one of them, in case I haven't mentioned before, being somewhat irrelevant), and Indra handed him over the lethal weapon.

So, did Karna lose or gain out of this exchange? Would the kavach have really helped him? As we shall find out, it did not aid him in previous encounters, with Arjun or otherwise. The weapon, though, came in serious aid when Ghatotkach threatened to win the war almost single-handedly for the Pandavs.

Something has always confused me: why did Karna not start off Kurukshetra like this?
1. Enter the battlefield.
2. Find Arjun.
3. Cast the weapon at him.
That would have helped rewrite history, isn't it?

Shalya's sledging:
We all know what Shalya did as Karna's charioteer on the seventeenth day. What most are not aware of is that Arjun was the receiving end of much more severe stuff (one might even call it verbal bashing) on the same day from - hold your breath - Yudhishthir: possibly the only time he had lot his temper. Arjun's fault? Karna was still alive.

Karna crumbled under verbal pressure, something that even club cricketers do not succumb to these days. Arjun simply motivated himself after the Yudhishthir confrontation. We all know who won.

***

Now, let us take a closer look at Karna's military career. I am not going into ball-by-ball details - this is a simple summary of the various military experiences he had been through. I wonder how many Karna fans I would be able to convert with my effort, but it's at least worth a try.

The arena
Imagine this. An entire batch of students graduate. They're about to demonstrate their skills in an arena. Now, the star student walks up and shows off incredible stuff. Then, there enters a challenger. He demonstrates everything Arjun had (so Drona's tutions, however great, were not necessarily the best), and challenges the latter to a duel.

Oooh - the drama!

Kunti recognises Karna (possibly from that useless kundal of his) and faints. Kripacharya asks Karna about his identity. A random charioteer walks up and hugs the challenger and acknowledges him as his son. Kripa claims that Karna's birth made him ineligible to fight Arjun. Just for the sake of it, a detailed account of Kripa's birth can be found here.

Duryodhan intervened and coronated Karna as the king of Anga, but the two half-brothers were kept apart for the time-being.

Verdict: Arjun 0, Karna 0.

The swayamvar:
Draupadi's swayamvar had attracted a lot of people: mostly kings, but the open-to-all nature meant that Brahmins were also welcome. Karna was the first one to tie the string to the bow, but then, Draupadi rejected Karna because of his birth. Once again, if you're really keen on Draupadi's birth, please visit here.

The rest is history. Arjun, disguised as a Brahmin, did the necessary, and just when the Pandavs were about to sneak away with Draupadi, many of the kings challenged them: Karna led them by getting involved in a direct duel with Arjun; and losing it promptly; with his kavach, and more importantly, his kundal on; without the chariot excuse, either.

Verdict: Arjun 1, Karna 0.

Defeat by the Gandharvas:
When the Pandavs were in the forest, it occurred to Duryodhan to pay a visit and make fun of their temporary poverty. He, accompanied by his brothers of various degrees of glamour, made the journey. He was also accompanied by Karna and his kundal, Shakuni, and a seriously sizeable army.

Then, things started going wrong. A cohort of Gandharvas attacked the Kauravs, and turned out to be more than a handful for them. Karna was the only one to provide some resistance, and even he was defeated by the Gandharva King Chitrasen. Duryodhan and Dushshasan were taken as captives, while Karna ran away with his life.

Who did the army go to for help? The Pandavs, of course. They came. They saw. They conquered. Chitrasen tried Gandharva magic, but Arjun turned out to be seriously good: the Kauravs were released. The entire incident shook Duryodhan so much that he contemplated suicide, only to be talked out of it with some effort.

Verdict: Arjun 2, Karna 0.

Defeat at Matsya:
Duryodhan's spies possibly made him suspicious that the Pandavs were hiding somewhere in Matsya; combining this with the facts that the Matsya commander-in-chief Kichak was dead and the Matsya kingdom was famous for its livestock, Duryodhan launched a two-pronged attack: he joined hands with the Trigarta (Haryana, possibly) king Susharma.

Susharma went around the Matsya kingdom (north Rajasthan, possibly) and attacked from the south. Duryodhan's army took the shorter route and attacked from the north.

Susharma's army attacked first: the attack was repelled by the Matsya king, Virat, helped by the four disguised Pandavs. Bheem (as the royal chef, Vallabh) played a significant role, and the attack was dealt with, successfully.

As all this was happening, Duryodhan's army attacked the unprotected northern gates of the city: it was the entire army this time, including the Who's Who of Hastinapur. Bhishma. Drona. Kripa. Duryodhan. Karna (with his overhyped kundal). Dushshasan. Ashwatthama.

The palace had only one male left: Uttar, the young prince of Matsya (I have always found it amusing that someone called Uttar would be required to protect the northern flank). He kept on boasting that he could easily have taken on the army if he had a charioteer. Arjun, disguised as an eunuch (well, he was actually serving a one-year curse by Urvashi), volunteered.

As Uttar approached the army, he, well, to put it rather subtly, wished he had been wearing a yellow dhoti on that particular day. He panicked, got down from his chariot, and tried to run away. The eunuch chased and brought him back (let's swap roles); he also got to a certain tree and got the weapons hidden atop it.

What followed was possibly the greatest solo display in the book: Arjun felled the entire Kaurav army; he didn't even kill them - he simply made all of them unconscious (some sources say that Bhishma only pretended to be so, since he did not want to fight Arjun).

An entire army. Defeated. By one person.

Verdict: Arjun 3, Karna 0.

Day 13: Abhimanyu
As we know, Karna did not enter the battlefield for the first ten days, and was only used as a supersub for Bhishma. The first two days of his presence were somewhat eventless: the shangshaptak army (sworn to kill or die), led by Susharma, challenged Arjun and took him away from the centre of events, whereas Drona had turned his focus to capture Yudhishtir alive.

The cat-and-mouse game carried on for two days: Drona tried to reach Yudhishthir, but he was kept away by the likes of Dhrishtadyumna, Satyaki and Bheem.

Then came the thirteenth day. Drona, under the impression that Krishna and Arjun were the only ones who knew how to penetrate it, invoked Chakravyuha. He was wrong: Abhimanyu knew the way into it but not the way out (see here to learn why).

Yudhishthir asked Abhimanyu to enter, and instructed his entire army to follow him. However, the entrance was guarded by Jayadrath. As per Shiva's boon, Jayadrath would be able to defeat all four Pandavs (barring Arjun) and their entire army for a single day.

This was that day. Abhimanyu rushed through, and suddenly realised that he was trapped inside, alone.

In an incredible display of valour, Abhimanyu kept on defeating one Kaurav rathi after another: he killed Lakshman, Duryodhan's son. He almost killed Dushshasan. And he held off the likes of Karna and Drona quite easily.

The Kauravs, Karna included, had only one option: they surrounded Abhimanyu from all sides. A team of seven warriors (Drona, Kripa, Ashwatthama, Karna, Kritavarma, Bhurishrava and Brihadval) attacked him from all directions simultaneously.

Abhimanyu responded by killing off Brihadval, and making life difficult for the others. Then, on Drona's advice, Karna went behind Abhimanyu and severed his bow. He tried multiple weapons, and lost each and every of them, including both wheels of his chariot, which he used as shields. Ultimately he fell to the rather low-profile son of Dushshasan, who hit him when he was just gaining consciousness.

Not only did Abhimanyu show incredible valour, he also showed the limitations of the Kaurava army. If he could defeat each and every one of them this easily, what would Arjun do?

Verdict: This wasn't really a confrontation with Arjun, but this was the first time in Kurukshetra that Karna was up against a seriously good warrior. And he could only compete being the part of a group. That too by attacking him from behind. Great warrior? You decide.

Day 14: Jayadrath
Arjun, of course, had to kill someone to avenge Abhimanyu. Strangely, he chose Jayadrath, not the men who surrounded and massacred the helpless kid (can you imagine Thakur saying mujhe Gabbar nahin, unke checkpost-wala guard chahiye?).

Drona created a vyuha inside a vyuha (suchivyuha - the needle formation - inside chakrashakatvyuha - the vehicle-with-wheels formation), and kept Jayadrath at the heart of the suchivyuha. He would be surrounded by Karna, Shalya, Kripa, Ashwatthama, Bhurishrava and Brishasen (Karna's son, in case you're not aware) - all seriously good warriors. The outside vyuha entrance was manned by Drona himself. The plot was to defend Jayadrath, and get Arjun to take his own life.

Arjun started off in a mad rush. When he reached Drona, Krishna simply drove the chariot past him and was out of reach before Drona could react. Mind you, Arjun started this mad rush absolutely alone, unaided, matched only by Sehwag in the 21st century AD. Soon after, Yudhishthir sent Satyaki behind him (who went past Drona, once again). Bheem was sent next, and the chunk of humanity, certainly not one for subtleties, simply smashed Drona's chariot, massacred his charioteer and went on to join forces with Arjun and Satyaki.

At this point of time, Karna, for reasons only known to him, broke the plan and challenged Bheem to a duel. He was not alone: Duryodhan sent sixteen of his brothers to help him. Bheem possibly used tally marks as he killed each one of them (the count was thirty-one now) - and emerged in a fierce duel with Karna.

Of course, Bheem was no expert in long-distance duels. Karna was a far better archer, and soon he lost his bow, and as he proceeded on foot towards Karna, his sword and mace as well. He had no option but to fling elephant corpses (!), but it was clearly a losing battle. Karna did spare him, though, thanks to his promise to Kunti.

Karna's deviation from the original plan also motivated Bhurishrava to come out of the innermost ring; he was killed, though, in a fight that was basically the outcome of multiple vows and promises made over generations (there shall be a blog post on that some day).

Arjun marched on, though, occasionally stopping to create random lakes out of nowhere to provide water for his exhausted horses. We all know the rest: he reached Jayadrath, Krishna covered The Sun (Karna's father, in case you've forgotten), Jayadrath peeked out and was beheaded. Karna and team were unable once again to contain Arjun. It didn't even strike Karna to use his one-time-use killer weapon, which might have decided the war that very moment. I wonder what he was saving it for.

Verdict: Arjun 4, Karna 0.

Day 14: War at night - Ghatotkach
For whatever reason, they decided to carry on the war at night as well. Karna launched a furious assault on the Pandavs, and when a tired Arjun wanted to counter him, Krishna decided to send Ghatotkach - of course he had Karna's stupidly unused weapon in mind.

The rakshasas were supposedly stronger at night, and Ghatotkach turned out to be more than a handful for the Kauravs. He didn't rely on sheer power or military ability - he used magic to great effects. He summoned random animals and birds of prey, accompanied by demons and ghosts and other non-trivial entities; he disappeared and reappeared; he flew; he threw multiple weapons in multiple directions simultaneously; he killed the opposition rakshasas; it was like Dale Steyn bowling at you from both ends, unchanged.

Karna was forced to use up his prized possession: as Ghatotkach realised what was going to happen, he increased his size many times and fell on the Kaurav army, which was, unfortunately, converted to a two-dimensional pulp.

Verdict: 0-4 down in bilateral contests; no kavach or kundal left; main weapon used up. And still people would blame LUCK for the upcoming defeat. Also, I suppose if Abhimanyu and Ghatotkach attacked the Kauravs together, they might have won the war without any help from their parents.

Day 16: Pandavs dominate
After Drona's demise on day fifteen, Karna was appointed senapati. The first day was pathetic for the Kauravs: Bheem and Arjun killed them at will; Duryodhan was almost killed by Yudhishthir TWICE on the same day; and even Nakul reduced Kaurav counts by plenty.

Karna did manage to stop Nakul after a fierce duel, but spared his life for his promise to Kunti. He killed a lot of Panchal soldiers that afternoon, but as a unit the Kauravs were no match for the Pandavs: and Arjun was simply more than a handful.

That night Duryodhan had Karna up for a show-cause: why are you not confronting Arjun? He did have a point there.

Karna possibly meant to say "er, I'm 0-4 down in bilateral contests, and I don't have my main weapon, kavach and most importantly, my kundal, and I'm also at the receiving end of two potent curses and have been too stupid and lazy to counter them, so I'm mortally afraid of taking him on". Instead, he blabbered something like "he-has-a-better-chariot-and-charioteer-and-horses-I-need-better-ones-myself-to-take-him-on. It-would-be-nice-to-have-Shalya-as-my-charioteer."

Sadly for Karna, they were granted. Even the Shalya bit. Poor soul. He really didn't expect Duryodhan to trust him to the extent of removing possibly his second-best warrior from direct confrontation.

Verdict: Not much. See previous verdict. Now he had to fight Arjun. What were the odds the previous night, guys?

Day 17: The other four Pandavs
Karna did take on Yudhishthir, of all people, early in the day. Yudhishthir showed surprising skills and felled Karna; Karna recovered and had his revenge, and once again Karna's promise saved another Pandav's life. Bheem joined the scene now; he showed sublime archery skills, for once, and had his revenge: his arrows made Karna lose consciousness. Hell, what chance did he have against Arjun now?

Arjun, on the other hand, was quite brutal on the Kauravs. He took on Duryodhan, Kripa, Kritavarma and Shakuni simultaneously, and defeated them easily.

Karna was stopped by Yudhishthir, Nakul and Sahadev: the three Pandavs fought valiantly, but they didn't really stand a chance: Karna defeated all of them, and wounded Yudhishthir severely, who left the battlefield on Sahadev's chariot. Once again, three more Pandav lives were saved thanks to Karna's vow.

Arjun returned to the "pavillion" to see Yudhishthir in the ICCU. He possibly expected him to be on saline, but Yudhishthir, for once, uttered the choicest of words: Arjun felt so humiliated that he rushed to kill Big Brother, and it was only thanks to Krishna's intervention that sanity was restored, and Bheem's royal career did not take off. They brothers possibly even shook hands.

Thus charged up, Arjun returned to the battlefield.

Verdict: The same as before. Additionally, Arjun is now more brutal; Karna's own charioteer is sledging him; and two lesser Pandavs have already felled him earlier in the day. Arjun is yet to be defeated, barring temporarily by Bhishma on the ninth day. Mwahahahahahahaha.

Day 17: The final duel
Whatever excuse Karna might have had to avoid Arjun went straight out of the window: Arjun killed Brishasen soon after his return.

They met. To be fair to Karna, he put up a gallant fight. The highlight of the duel is possibly the intervention of Ashwasen, the son of Takshak. Arjun had killed his mother when he put Khandav to fire, and he sought revenge. He disguised himself as an arrow and entered Karna's quiver, and was cast at Arjun.

For some reason, this was supposed to be an unstoppable arrow: Arjun's repertoire had no answer to him, and Krishna intervened in the end, pressing the chariot with his toes to dig the wheels inside the ground by a few inches. Arjun lost his golden crown (a crown so famous that Arjun was also called Kiriti - the one with the crown) as a result.

Krishna recovered the chariot, and the fierce battle continued. And then it happened: Karna's chariot wheel got stuck in the ground. Karna pleaded mercy (and - heehaw! - asked Arjun to fight fair). With one final desperate effort, Karna hit Arjun on the arm and had him unconscious as he tried to recover his wheel, which, with a proper back-up chariot, would have been a totally unncessary act, as discussed above.

Arjun recovered. Cast an arrow. After a while the wheel extracted itself on its own, and Shalya returned with an empty chariot.

Verdict: It's up to the reader now.