Karna The Unsung Hero of the Mahabharata
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First published in India 2015 by Frog Books
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Copyright © Umesh Kotru, Ashutosh Zutshi
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ISBN 978-93-52013-04-3
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II OM SHREE GANESHAAYA NAMAH II
Dedicated to the fond memory of revered Mrs. Sheela Zutshi
(Mother of Ashutosh and eldest sister of Umesh)
For
Our beloved children
Mrinalini, Siddhartha, Aditya and Nakul
BHARATAVARSHA AT THE TIME OF THE MAHABHARATA WAR
About the Authors
Umesh Chandra Kotru, a specialist in accounts and finance of the Government of India, retired in 2010 from the Ministry of Power, after a distinguished career spanning years of professional work in the Ministry of External Affairs; Indian Embassy in Washington; Ministry of Finance; and Ministry of Environment & Forests.
An avid reader of books on Philosophy, Religion, Mythology and Fiction, and a passionate aficionado of Sports, Umesh now divides his time between his two pursuits of the mind and the body.
Living in Noida with wife, also retired from Central Government Service, they have a daughter who is a doctor and a son who is an engineer with MBA, both married.
Email: umesh_kotru@rediffmail.com
Ashutosh Zutshi, like-minded nephew of Umesh Kotru, is a technocrat with a difference. An electronics & communication engineer, Ashutosh is engaged in higher-level corporate management as General Manager of a Japanese MNC in Delhi. At the same time, an inner urge for self-actualisation drives him to find some time – mostly in the weekends – to pursue his other interests, in music, in singing and of course, in serious reading.
Ashutosh too lives in Noida with his wife, who works with the United Nations and two sons who are in school.
Email: zutshiash@hotmail.com
Acknowledgements
We owe this book to what we believe was a divine inspiration which came to both of us almost simultaneously. We, therefore, believe that it was the transcendental guidance of Shri Krishna himself that led us through the project. As is the case with divinity, we too had to undergo severe test of our resolve on many occasions. On the temporal front, we would like to record our special appreciation for Dr. Mrinalini Fotedar, whose immense encouragement and advice made it possible to give shape to our work. We are also highly grateful to our families for their support and valuable suggestions, particularly Rattan Kotru, Siddhartha Kotru and Ragini Zutshi, who took the pains to go through the manuscript in detail.
Last but surely not the least, it would be highly remiss on our part if we do not acknowledge the contribution of the inexhaustible wealth of knowledge left by the great ancestors of our land in the shape of the Epics and Scriptures, of which we have been able to absorb only a tiny fraction. The central theme of this book is the life story of Karna – the self-made man, the ultimate exemplar of human effort. We will consider our work a success if it is of some help to even one individual to face and overcome the challenges thrown by life.
Contents
Authors’ Note
Prologue
Chapter-1: Birth of Karna
Chapter-2: Kunti’s Dilemma
Chapter-3: The Castaway
Chapter-4: Early Life
Chapter-5: The Hero Emerges
Chapter-6: Quest for Excellence
Chapter-7: The Outpouring of Inner Conflict
Chapter-8: The Svayamvara
Chapter-9: The Game of Dice
Chapter-10: Arjuna seeks Divine Weapons
Chapter-11: Association with Evil
Chapter-12: Daanaveera
Chapter-13: The Great Sacrifice
Chapter-14: War Becomes Inevitable
Chapter-15: The Revelation
Chapter-16: A Mother reveals her Secret
Chapter-17: Focus Shifts to Kurukshetra
Chapter-18: Bhishma Finally Blesses Karna
Chapter-19: Inner Turmoil Resolved
Chapter-20: Scorching the Battlefield
Chapter-21: Karna in Command
Chapter-22: The Curtain Falls
Epilogue
Character Profiles (Supporting Cast)
Glossary
Authors’ Note
Like a vast majority of fellow Indians we have grown up listening to the stories from the greatest of Indian Epics – ‘The Mahabharata’– from our elders, particularly our mothers. How could anybody be not fascinated by the seemingly never ending saga of intricately woven tales which appear to have no beginning or end? Despite the monumental stature of this ‘Great Epic of India’, keeping a copy of The Mahabharata at home is still considered inauspicious, as it is believed to bring conflict and turmoil in the family. Thankfully this was not the case in our families and our curiosity led us to explore the epic. In the process, we got exposure to a first hand experience of the delightful maze of interwoven stories contained in the Mahabharata. At an age when many of our age-group spent the best part of their spare time in play, we used to spend hours, absorbed in the pages of Mahabharata. Initially, like others, we thought Mahabharata to be just a tale describing a most destructive war between two branches of the Puru dynasty, namely the Kauravas and the Pandavas. But it turned out that the core story concerning the Puru dynasty named ‘Jaya’ or victory consists of only ten thousand verses which is but a fraction of the complete Mahabharata, comprising of more than one hundred thousand verses.
It is said that whatever is not described in the Mahabharata does not exist. Obviously, the adage has its validity in the sense that the text takes us to the very beginning of time when life was evolving from a cosmic egg, till the recitation of the great epic in the court of King Janamejaya, the great grandson of Arjuna. Even the Ramayana and all the Puraanas are summarized in this epic. The greatest of all Puraanas, the Shrimadbhagavata Maha Puraana, branches off from the last seven days of King Parikshit’s (grandson of Arjuna) life, before he dies of snake bite.
To us today’s readers, it is amazing to note the sheer number of larger-than-life characters around which various episodes in the epic have been woven. Shri Krishna, Bhishma, Dronacharya, Yudhishthira, Arjuna, Bhima, Kunti, Abhimanyu, Duryodhana, Gandhari, Draupadi, Ashvatthama and many more are only a few in a long list. But somehow, we have always been convinced that among the myriad characters in the Mahabharata, Karna comes across as the most evocative one. One cannot but be awed by his towering p
ersonality and sheer strength of character, and at the same time help identifying oneself with the moments of frailty in his tragic life. It is this realistic mix of nuances that makes Karna such a credible and lifelike character. The more we researched this epic the more convinced we became about Karna being not only the real hero of Mahabharata, but a tragic hero to boot. He did not make a public show of his existential tragedy and maintained a façade of normal human behaviour in his dealings with his friends or foes. He kept his mental anguish hidden in the inner recesses of his mind, till the same manifested in the later part of his life through his nightmares. We have tried to bring out this deepset psychological crisis of his existence, which has not been addressed explicitly in the Mahabharata.
Most of us understand the Mahabharata as the story of a great war – a story revolving around the Pandavas, how they suffered at the hands of their cousins, and how they were protected at every stage by Shri Krishna. But why do we ignore the fact that the eldest Pandava was Karna and he could never get his due? How unfortunate and tragic it is that he actually had to be associated with the very enemies of the Pandavas and how he himself bore this burden and still continued to behave as an exemplary hero, committed to fulfill his pledged duty. He will perhaps always be remembered more as a loyal friend of Duryodhana and less as the eldest Pandava or the eldest son of Kunti. The story of Karna begins with the misfortune of his secret birth and unfolds itself amidst the unremitting gloom of injustice and insult. At every stage in his life he had to endure immense hardships and yet, never did he deter from the path of righteousness. But then, he gets no credit whatsoever for his greatness, particularly when he was surrounded by evil on account of his close friendship with Duryodhana and company. It is worth noting that even an exemplary personality like Bhishma could not escape the taint of bad company. The shameful attempt to disrobe Draupadi was made in his presence and he did nothing to stop it. He went on to acknowledge this blemish on his conduct in a conversation with Karna while lying on his deathbed of arrows.
What is amazing in the story of Karna was the complete silence maintained by his biological mother Kunti and Shri Krishna about his real parentage, till Karna actually died in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Shri Krishna could not have been expected to reveal the secret about Karna’s background up front, because as God incarnate he was not supposed to influence day to day events of the time. Otherwise he would have ended the war before it had even begun. That does not mean Shri Krishna did not try. He did meet Karna on the eve of the Mahabharata war and advised him to change sides. By way of inducement as the eldest Pandava, he even offered him the throne of Hastinapura which the latter politely declined and on top of it, extracted a promise from Shri Krishna that he would not divulge the fact of his being the eldest Pandava to anybody, particularly to the Pandavas themselves. It will always remain a moot question whether Shri Krishna effectively took away a portion of Karna’s motivation for the war by this soul-shattering revelation about his real lineage. By the same token, Kunti’s meeting Karna shortly after Shri Krishna did may not convince objective readers that there was no selfish motive involved. For all her motherly feelings, she had maintained complete silence even after recognising Karna in the test arena despite loving him dearly. Perhaps the fact of Karna being progeny of an unwed mother would have prevented her from making his lineage public. We have tried our best to portray her anguish at the time of casting him away soon after his birth, but the fact remains that the meeting with his biological mother must have certainly demotivated him to a certain extent.
This selfishness of Kunti, howsoever enforced, turned Karna into a tragic hero right from his birth, an aspect that has been covered – adequately it is hoped – in this book. We have always wondered about the might-have-beens in Karna’s life. What would have happened if Karna had not been what we know him to be? The course of history might have been different: if he hadn’t parted with his natural armour and earrings; if Maharishi Parashurama and the old Brahmin had not cursed him; if he had broken his promise made to Kunti even once; if he had accepted the fortuitous offer of the serpent Ashvasena in the thick of his battle with Arjuna, and so on.
On the psychological front again, the stigma of his perceived lineage never left him. It required Adhiratha, his father, to quote him the equally tragic story of Ekalavya to bring him out of depression into which Guru Dronachaya’s rejection for his enrolment for higher studies had pushed him. His psyche again suffered a setback when he was debarred from the tournament on the basis of his lineage, despite being the best performer of the day. Another big shock came his way in the Svayamvara of Draupadi. The biggest ambition of any warrior is to display his prowess in battle. But cruel fate even denied him that privilege when he was forced to sit out of the Kurukshetra war for the first ten days, till Bhishma was the Commander-in-Chief. He might have looked normal from the outside but his inner personality was surely impacted by these and many other tragedies.
The various sacrifices he made were only one aspect of his otherwise towering, though somewhat complex personality. Sometimes it was hard to believe to what extent he could drive himself to adhere to his principles of not sending back anybody empty-handed from his presence. His commitment to his principled generosity was so strong that he knew that he was virtually giving away his own life to Indra in the shape of his armour and earrings despite having been warned beforehand by Surya-deva, his divine father. In another instance, he broke the sandalwood panels of his own palace for charity, when he could not otherwise procure the sandalwood demanded by an old Brahmin. Before him all of the Kaurava, as well as Pandava princes, including Arjuna, had pleaded helplessness in meeting the Brahmin’s request because of the non-availability of sandalwood in Hastinapura. The commitment to his principles was so deeply embedded in his psyche that he could not breach the same even in the thick of battle and in his worst nightmares. Quite arguably therefore, the deeds of this tragic hero merit more plaudits than those of all other Mahabharata heroes, even including Arjuna. Overall, all this made him a unique personality with no parallel among his contemporaries.
We decided to present to our readers another curious yet essentially human aspect of Karna’s personality, which does not seem to have been covered extensively by other commentators. One of the ‘negative’ traits of Karna was his propensity to boast about his abilities every now and then. For this he was roundly criticised by Bhishma, Shalya and almost everyone who did not agree with him. We gave some careful thought to this side of his otherwise wonderful personality and came up with the plausible reason that his bragging about his prowess stemmed from his basic insecurity linked to his deemed lineage leading to humiliating rejection even after he became a king. Otherwise there was no need to boast, considering what he was capable of achieving in battle. That is proved by the last show he put up in his battle with Arjuna where, but for Shri Krishna Arjuna ran the risk of losing the contest. Karna indeed was the Mahabharata’s greatest epitome of purushakaara (manly effort) – a self-made hero whose lot it was to contend with the myriad unfortunate interventions of fate against him. It was only the last two accursed interventions – in the form of a stuck chariot wheel and of his forgetting the use of the weapon of last resort – that enabled Arjuna to kill him, under rather dubious circumstances, one must say.
All through his association with benefactor Duryodhana, he never for a moment deviated from his mission of loyalty to him. In the bargain he seemed to have lost some of his individuality, resulting in his becoming restless and without purpose in life. With his entry in the war on the eleventh day, he arrived in the domain where he actually belonged. After that life or death were of least importance to him. As is evident from his conversation with Shri Krishna and Kunti, followed by the dream sequences on the eve of his joining the war, he was pretty certain about the outcome of the war. He spent his last days in performing his sworn duty towards his friend Duryodhana to the best of his ability.
Towards the end of his life, Karna h
ad begun to perceive not only his own approaching death but had the foreboding of death and destruction all around him. He had some premonitions and nightmares pointing to his own demise. He also foresaw complete desolation throughout the length and breadth of the country after the conclusion of the war. As has been brought out in the book, Karna was blessed with sharp intellect. He was very sensitive by nature and well-versed in scriptures. His own suffering had made him adopt a pronouncedly philosophical approach to life. That is why he appeared to be at peace with himself towards the end of the battle of Mahabharata.
Karna, for all his manly effort, could not change his destiny while he was alive. But he seemed to have redeemed himself in death, when a ray of bright light left his body and merged with the sun shining in the sky. He got immediate deliverance after death. In comparison, all the Pandavas had to undergo a brief spell in hell for their sins prior to transiting to heaven.
Considering the role played by Karna we were always tempted to speculate what if he had been given his due place as the eldest Pandava once Kunti had recognised her lost son. Perhaps there then would have been no Mahabharata. At least the epic would not then have been in the shape in which it has come down to us; and thereby may not have been rated as one of the best poetic dramas composed anywhere in the world.
To conclude, it may be in the fitness of things to reiterate that in the whole of Mahabharata if there was one individual who was endowed with all the good qualities an ordinary human being can have, that was Karna. Nobody was a more gracious donor than him. Coupled with all his superlative qualities of mind and body, God had endowed him with a truly handsome personality. Yet, as it happens in such cases, he acquired some bad qualities, mostly by association, which made him do some acts which were the very antitheses of his otherwise righteous nature. But that is the way of this world; how could Karna be an exception to the rule? Still, exceptional he was – with all his contrarieties – as a heroes’ hero who lived and died for his principles and convictions. The most striking character (apart from Shri Krishna) of the Mahabharata, one could go on and on, but still something would be left to describe him.