ANTAKARA ( Karna the duke )

Antakara in Sanskrit means the sun . This painting a portrait of the son of the morning KARNA the duke into battle Kurusetra.

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Karna was the son of Surya ( sun god in Hindi mythology ) and Kunti. He was born to Kunti before her marriage with Pandu. Karna was the closest friend of Duryodhana and fought on his behalf against the Pandavas (his brothers) in the famous Kurukshetra war. Karna fought against misfortune throughout his life and kept his word under all circumstances. It is believed that Karna founded the city of Karnal, in present Haryana. Karna is one of the most famous personalities in Hinduism based on the merits they earned by giving charity. He is often quoted for his sacrifice, courage, charity, valour, and selflessness (wikipedia)

 

He was a man with a phenomenal sense of integrity and generosity but all this was lost. He died in the battle in a bad way.

 

Existence is not making a judgment about who is good or bad. It is only social situations that try to judge people as good and bad. It is only individual human beings who try to judge you as good and bad. Existence never judges because it is not written anywhere that one thing is good and some other thing is bad. It is just that if you do the right things, the right results happen to you. If you don’t do the right things, the right things do not happen to you. I think that’s perfectly fair. All the Karna fans think it is unfair that he should have been put through so much. I think it’s perfectly fair. Society may not be fair, but the existence is perfectly fair – unless you do the right things, the right things will not happen to you. If existence was not like this, there would be no value for doing the right things or for human intelligence. Nothing that we value in our life would be valuable if you could do wrong things and still the right things happened to you. Life doesn’t work like that. (iSHA- Karna - Hero or Villain ? )

 

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Karna, the heroic villain of Mahabharata

 

Containing hundreds of characters, lots of events, so many episodes and having a time span of thousands of years Mahabharata, an Indian epic, is the biggest epic in the world. In count of numbers of verses it is seven times bigger than Illiad and Odyssey. By the grace of Indra (Devraj, King of gods) and with his divinely powerful bow Gandib, the hero of Mahabharata is none other than Arjuna. As literature says, when there is a hero there must be a villain. Literally, villain means the main negative character in a play, story, novel etc. who is morally not sound and responsible for causing the trouble or harm for others, particularly the hero or heroine. In that sense there are more villains in Mahabharata viz. Duryodohana, Duswashan, Shakuni (maternal uncle of Duryodhana) etc. but surpassingly all of them represent Karna, the only person that though known as a villain, had heroic characters.

 

In a war Karna challenged Arjuna but Arjuna declined to fight him on the ground that fight occurs between kings but Karna was none of a royal dynasty. Instantly Duryodhana declared Karna as king of Anga (presently Bhagalpur and Munger district in the state of Bihar in India). Since then, as an outcome of Arjuna’s refusal to fight, Kama nourished a strong hatred for Pandav brothers i.e. five Pandavs.

In war of Kurukshethra, among other heroes in both Pandava and Kaurav side, Karna was unparallel and almost equal to Arjuna. He was a child of Kunti (mother of five Pandavs) by Surya (the sun) before her marriage. So, according to traditional belief Karna is an illegitimate child but in the other way round, he is the eldest of Pandava brothers though just after birth Kunti left him and he was adopted by another couple named Adhirath and Radha. Gradually he was known as a son of Adhiratha, a charioteer. He always made a relentless effort to know his parentage and from where he came. At one stage, before the war of Kurukshetra, when he came to know from Sri Krishna that he was a son of Surya and Kunti, he had a breakdown within himself but his hatred towards the Pandavs and as a mark of loyalty to Duryodhana he thought that his hatred was justified. He is one of the central characters of Mahabharata, a close friend of Duryodhana and a great warrior who was believed to have the power of defeating Arjuna in a war but though he was intelligent he was very unfortunate and unscrupulous.

Since birth Karna had an undecaying bangle and amulet which would protect him from any danger especially in a war. As a mother Kunti knew it very well. Though Karna was her eldest son, she had all the sympathy and affection for her other five sons. Knowing it fully well that so long the amulet and bangle were with him, Karna would be invincible and her sons, i.e. the Pandavas would be defeated in the war. Moreover, she came to know from Sri Krisha that Karna alone was sufficient to destroy the Pandavs. With such an apprehension in mind and with a view to ensure victory of the Pandavas in the imminent war, she went to Karna who was then offering prayers to the evening sun on the bank of holy river, the Ganges (Jahnabi, the other name).We can remember that famous poem Karna Kunti Sangbad by Rabindranath Tagore. Karna could not recognise her mother because he was abandoned by Kunti just after birth. Introducing herself, Kunti requested Karna to leave the Kaurava side and join the Pandavas. Kunti’s purpose of coming became clear to Karna but frustrating her and out of deep sense of gratitude to Duryodhana, Karna declined to be a renegade. Being afraid and thinking of the inevitable result of the war, Kunti prayed for the undecaying amulet and bangle to Karna. Karna could clearly understand the consequences of leaving that amulet and bangle but as it was his nature not to refuse anyone, at that solemn moment of evening prayer, he did not refuse and risking his own life he gave away that amulet and bangle to Kunti. Such was the generosity of Karna. What a great sacrifice at the cost of his life! With this greatness of mind and broadness of heart Karna is very much like a hero but even after reaching such an altitude of greatness, Karna had villain like activities in his life.

 

When Draupadi was disrobed in the open court in front of hundreds of members of royal family, Karna remained a passive onlooker and enjoyed the humiliation without any protest which, however, tainted his greatness.

Abhimanyu (son of Arjuna) was a boy of only 18 but he was an expert warrior. Karna considered him as moving death. Even Dronacharya (arms teacher of Pandav and Kaurav brothers) thought him as the incarnation of Rudra, the god of war. Karna apprehended that unless killed, Abhimanyu would destroy all of them. He consulted with Dronacharya and others. One day during the war of Kurukshetra, seven very senior warriors of the Kaurav side, under the leadership of Karna, killed Abhimanyu which was against all acknowledged laws and rules of the war. Killing Abhimanyu illegally in war was the most remarkable act of Karna as a villain. He committed mistakes one after another only out of his extreme sense of loyalty to Duryodhana and turned himself into a villain though he had all the qualities of a hero.

Earlier in life, hiding his identity as Kshatriya, Karna learnt the techniques of using arms and the art of warfare from his arms teacher (astraguru) but when his real identity became clear his teacher commented — “during war you will forget all the big and powerful arms which I have taught you” and it happened in the war of Kurukshetra. Once, out of anger, Karna bate a calf of a Brahmin to death simply for the reason that the calf had eaten up flowers of his garden. That Brahmin cursed—“wheels of your chariot would be grabbed in the soil during the time of war”. That also happened most pathetically.

We see that the most sentimental scene of the war of Kuruskhetra (and also of Mahabharata) where Kkarna downfaced, without amulet and bangle, face to face with Arjuna, in futile efforts to pull out the wheels of his chariot from the eternal grab of soil and requesting, “Arjuna, you are a pious man. Please allow me time to pull out the wheels of my chariot”. In reply, Arjuna is saying, “Where was your sense of religion when you killed boy Abhimanyu in an unlawful battle?” And those were the last words of Karna, the great but mean, mighty but miserable and the most complex and unfortunate character in Mahabharata.

 

from : www.daily-sun.com

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