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STORIES · THE MAHĀBHĀRATA · Vana
Kuṇḍala-haraṇa
Classical
Janamejaya asks Vaisampayana a question that opens the whole episode: what secret did the Sun keep from Karna, and what were the earrings and armour he was born with? Vaisampayana answers by going back to the birth.
A tall, bearded Brahmin with matted hair and a staff came to the court of King Kuntibhoja and asked to stay as a guest, to eat his alms-food and come and go freely, and to be offended by no one over food or bed. Kuntibhoja agreed and told his adopted daughter Pritha to serve him devotedly. He warned that the whole family would be consumed if she angered him.
The next page I read has Pritha conceiving a son by the sun-like deity, hiding her pregnancy in the maidens' quarters with only her nurse knowing. She gave birth to a godlike boy with armour and shining earrings, lion's eyes and bull's shoulders. Weeping, she put the baby in a smooth wicker box lined with soft sheets and sealed with wax, and at night, with her nurse's help, set it on the river Aswa, blessing him tearfully. The box drifted to the Charmanwati, the Yamuna and the Ganga, and the Ganga carried it to Champa. The armour and earrings, with destiny, kept him alive.
A charioteer named Adhiratha, a friend of Dhritarashtra, and his wife Radha, who had been childless a long time, found the box. They called the boy Vasusena and Vrisha and raised him as their eldest, even after they had other sons. Pritha learned through spies that her son, in celestial armour, was growing up among the Angas as a charioteer's son. He studied at Hastinapura under Drona, and learned weapons from Drona, Kripa and Rama, became a famous archer, befriended Duryodhana, and turned against the sons of Pritha. Each day, after rising from the water at midday and worshipping the Sun, Karna gave freely to Brahmins. Indra, in the guise of a Brahmin, came to ask.
The night before, though, the Sun had come to Karna in a dream. Karna told the Sun-god that he was his devoted worshipper and would give up anything, even his life, in charity, that he would rather die than speak untruth, and that he put the Sun above wives, sons and friends. He told the Sun to set aside his sorrow over Arjuna, because he was sure he would defeat him with the weapons he had from Parashurama and Drona, and he asked leave to keep his vow to give his life to whoever begged of him. Surya warned him that Indra, disguised as a beggar, planned to take the earrings, that without them he would be vulnerable, and that Indra wanted Arjuna to kill him. If Karna had to give them, he should give them only in exchange for Indra's infallible dart that kills enemies by hundreds. Surya vanished. In the morning, after his prayers, Karna told the Sun what had passed, and the Sun confirmed it with a smile. Karna then waited for Indra.
The disguised Indra came. Karna welcomed him and offered gold, women, villages, cattle and fields. The visitor refused all of it and asked for the armour and the earrings. Karna offered his kingdom instead, but would not part with the armour and earrings that made him invulnerable. Then he recognised the visitor as the king of the gods, and said that a true gift should be met by one in return. Indra admitted that the Sun had warned him, and agreed to give a boon of Karna's choosing, except the thunderbolt.
Karna asked for the dart. Indra explained that in his own hand it destroys hundreds of foes and returns, but in Karna's it would kill one powerful enemy and then return. Karna named his target. Indra said Krishna protects that man. Karna accepted anyway, asking only that his body not be left disfigured, and Indra promised no ugly scar, but warned that if Karna threw the dart in anger when not in real danger it would strike him instead.
Then Karna cut the armour from his body and tore out his earrings without flinching. Gods, men and Danavas cried out, celestial drums sounded and flowers fell. He handed the dripping armour and earrings to Indra, and the text ties his name Karna, the one who cuts, to this act. Indra went back to heaven, satisfied that the Pandavas' cause had advanced.
Told by Vaiśampāyana → Janamejaya
Who: Karṇa
Bound to
The Fall of Karṇa: the Sinking Wheel mirror
Where this comes from
- CE · Mahabharata, Critical Edition 3.284-294 3.284-294
- read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (ibiblio.org SriPedia mirror) Vana Parva, Section CCC (Karna and the Sun's warning)
- read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (ibiblio.org SriPedia mirror) Vana Parva, Section CCCI (Janamejaya's question; Kuntibhoja's Brahmin guest)
- read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (mahabharataonline.com) Vana Parva, Section CCCVI (the birth; the box on the river)
- read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (mahabharataonline.com) Vana Parva, Section CCCVII (Adhiratha and Radha; Karna's youth; Indra comes)
- read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (ibiblio.org SriPedia mirror) Vana Parva, Section CCCVIII (Indra and Karna; the armour; the dart)