Karna's Karma

Long ago, a war broke out between two groups known as the Pandavas and Kauravas. These groups once ruled together, given that they were cousins of each other, but that all changed one day. The jealous prince of the Kauravas, Duryodhana, had acquired everything the Pandavas owned: land, gold, and even their wife, by gambling with rigged dice. After taking everything from the Pandavas by deceit, he sent them into exile. However, the worst action done at the gambling hall was when Karna, a god-born warrior for Duryodhana, forced Draupadi, the wife of the Pandavas, to undress in front of everyone there. This sent the Pandavas into a rage, making vows to kill Karna and the Kauravas, but they couldn’t do anything about it. Throughout their exile, they had planned on the war that would be fought between them and their cousins once their time was up. The Kauravas had Karna, a warrior that possessed celestial armor and jewelry that made him immortal, while the Pandavas had Krishna, an avatar of the god Vishnu. Once their exile was over, the war between the Pandavas and Kauravas was inevitable.

Both sides had many great warriors, but Arjuna of the Pandavas, and Karna for the Kauravas, were the greatest. It was only a matter of time until the two mighty warriors would face each other. The battle between these two would indeed be the biggest, but even before the war, these two had long been opponents. Throughout their time, these two had been viewed as equal in strength, but there were times where one would get bested by the other. For instance, during Draupadi’s Swayamwara, the challenge was to string a godly bow and shoot an elaborate fish-seen-in-reflection challenge. Karna himself could not string the bow, but Arjuna, disguised as Brahmin while in exile, completed the task with ease, and took Draupadi to be his wife.

While it was obvious that the Pandavas were ready for war with their cousins, Krishna believed that a war was not the best option. He tried to convince the brothers that fighting the Kauravas would just cause more problems, and that it wouldn’t be worth it. However, they insisted that the war must go on because of the vows they took when Draupadi was violated in front of them. Krishna also went to the Kauravas and asked them not to start a war, but they refused also. While Krishna’s efforts to stop the war between the cousins had failed, he knew a secret that might make all the difference.

The war had started, and blood was spilled on both sides of the battlefield. Although Karna was the greatest warrior for the Kauravas, Duryodhana did not let him lead in battle. Day after day of battling, Karna begged Duryodhana to let him step in as leader of the army, but he refused. Arjuna’s son, Abhimanyu, was a huge threat to the Kauravas. Throughout the war he had slain thousands of their soldiers, and Duryodhana had come up with a plan to kill him. After slaying his charioteer, and shattering his chariot, seven warriors surrounded the weaponless Abhimanyu. They closed around him like hunters and an animal. The Pandavas tried to come and save Arjuna’s son, but Karna held them back. After a while, the seven warriors had slain Abhimanyu. Once Arjuna heard of the death of his son, there was no longer anything holding him back.

After weeks of the war going on, and each side having their small victories, Drona, the leader of the Kauravas, had fallen, and it was now Karna’s time to lead them. As soon as Karna was put in charge, he announced that the first thing he was doing was fighting Arjuna. Krishna, hearing this, knew it was time to tell Arjuna and Karna what he knew. Krishna went to Arjuna and told him how Karna is actually the eldest brother of the Pandavas, explaining how Kunti, Arjuna’s mother, is also the mother of Karna. Arjuna was in disbelief, and asked Krishna if Karna knew. Krishna told Arjuna that neither of them had known their entire lives, and that he was going to tell Karna that same night. As promised, Krishna went to Karna to tell him about his relation to the Pandavas. Karna was not happy to hear this information. He immediately rejected Kunti as his mother, explaining how she abandoned him and didn’t care for him like a mother should. His parents were the ones that rescued him from the river and raised him. Karna didn’t care that he shared blood with the Pandavas, he still wanted to kill Arjuna.

Finally came the day that Arjuna and Karna would fight each other. Once the battle begun, everything became still, as all the warriors throughout the kingdom watched the mighty heroes fight each other. Arjuna darkened the sky with a storm of arrows that rained down on Karna. With his elusiveness, Karna avoided every single arrow, and shot a flurry of his own at Arjuna. Using his bow to defend against the speeding arrows, the string of his celestial bow was severed. This rendered Arjuna weaponless while he was re-stringing his bow. However, Karna still approached Arjuna with authority. Arjuna explained to Karna the rules of battle and pleaded with him to pause while he restrung his bow. Karna ignored Arjuna’s request and struck him in the chest with arrows until he was heavily wounded. Noticing that he had not fatally wounded Arjuna, Karna fled to his chariot to escape the furry of Arjuna. However, just as Arjuna had restrung his bow, the horses of Karna’s chariot would not budge. Nothing was hindering the chariot from moving. Everything was catching up to Karna.

As Arjuna approached Karna with an arrow still in his chest, Karna pleaded with Arjuna, explaining how it is not manly to attack a defenseless enemy. Arjuna, being an honest warrior, hesitated to attack Karna because he spoke the truth. However, Krishna stepped in quickly and exclaimed, “You coward! Your words are true, but where was that honesty when Arjuna pleaded the same to you right before you put an arrow in his chest? How manly was it of you to force Draupadi, a defenseless WOMAN, to undress in front of everyone in the gambling hall? Was it manly of you to protect a group of warriors while they surrounded and slayed young Abhimanyu while you held off any help he had coming?” The hesitation that Arjuna had felt was diminished after hearing the words of Krishna. With a fresh string on his bow, Arjuna pulled with all his strength until the bow began to crack, and with one arrow, he beheaded Karna in his chariot. Karma had caught Karna on the battlefield.

Author’s Note

This story uses information from a few episodes of the Mahabharata but focuses on episode 67 of the public domain edition titled Arjuna and Karna. The original version of this story focuses only on the day of the battle between Arjuna and Karna and is very short, about 300 words. In my version, in order to add length, I included details that were necessary in order to understand the history of the characters, which adds to the idea of karma.

There are a few details that were changed completely from the original version as well. The first major one being the reason Karna’s chariot wouldn’t move. In the original version, the wheel of the chariot had gotten stuck in the mud, and the horses tried to move, but it was too stuck. This still has some elements of karma to it, but I thought it would add some intensity to make it seem like the horses could move if they wanted to, but for “some reason” they wouldn’t. Also, there are multiple small details of the story that is different from the Mahabharata. Like when Krishna told Karna and Arjuna they were brothers, was slightly different timing than what I used, for example.

The whole idea of this story is to show how karma may not have a single consequence for a single action. Karna had done multiple things that Krishna pointed out that lead to his ironic (or karmic in this case) death.

Bibliography

“Arjuna and Karna” from Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).

The death of Karna

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