The Tournament

“I can’t wait for the tournament,” Bhima announced loudly to his brothers. The five Pandava brothers had been excited all morning for this tournament.

This tournament was between them and their cousins, the Kauravas. The purpose of the tournament was to see how much they had learned in their training from Kripacharya and Drona. Their skills would be tested today. Their talents would be exhibited in front of everyone including the royal family and the public. They were all ready to show everyone the skills in weaponry and archery they had acquired.

“I hope none of my sons get hurt today,” hoped Kunti. She had been excited for the tournament as well. She knew her sons had all trained so hard with their gurus. They had so much energy in them that she knew this would be a perfect way for them to exert all of that energy.

The tournament was held at an open ground. There was cushioned seating for the royal family. Most of the family, including all of the cousins and their parents, were already there. The public were standing around the circled off battle ground.

As the tournament progressed, all of the cousins had gone and showcased the talents in front of the crowd. The one who stood out the most was her son, Arjuna. Everyone was stunned by his skills in archery and use of weapons. They watched in awe and admiration. Like any other mother would, she felt immense pride for her son. But then came along a man named Karna.

Karna was clad in gold armor and celestial earrings. He walked straight onto the middle of the ground and looked around at everyone with pride. He said he had gotten training from Parshuram himself, so he wanted to challenge Arjuna. Kunti watched as Karna surpassed all the feats Arjuna had accomplished. She could tell from her son’s face that he was getting angrier by the second. The thick clouds had gathered in the sky. Lighting flashed and thunder pealed. Karna was happy that he finally had spotlight shining on him. Arjuna, however, was not about to let this nobody steal his thunder. She watched as Arjuna refused to let Karna be crowned the victor.

Kunti couldn’t help but stare at Karna. For some reason, she felt a connection to this man. He looked familiar to her. She listened as Kripacharya stepped in and said they couldn’t let him fight if Karna wasn’t from a royal bloodline. They wanted to know his lineage.

“I don’t know about my lineage. All I know from my parents is that I was found in a basket floating down the river. I was brought up a charioteer and his wife, my mother. They are the only family I know,” explained Karna.

Kunti was in shock. She couldn’t believe what she had just heard. “Could this… could he… is this… no, that’s not possible. But it can be. But how?” thought Kunti. She began to panic. She started to feel dizzy and her vision was getting darker. She lost consciousness the moment she realized that Karna was her firstborn.

Bibliography:

Karna becomes King. Epified: Mahabharata.

The Arrival of Karna. Public Domain Edition: Mahabharata.

Indian Myth and Legend. Donald A. Mackenzie.

Author's Note: Originally, the story I had written was based off of a scene from an Epified: Mahabharata video, Karna becomes King. I thought I would make a sequel to my previous story Rough Goodbyes, but I ended up just writing more about the tournament and the interaction between the Pandavas, Kauravas, and Karna. The Epified video starts off with the competition between the Kauravas and the Pandavas. Also, Kunti finds out for the first time that the man challenging Arjuna is actually her firstborn she had given up. This was what made me want to consider writing a sequel. I ended up still using Kunti's point of view from my original story I wrote. In the video, the narrator focuses more on the tension between the men, and the part about Kunti fainting is briefly mentioned towards the end so that was also a contributing factor to my decision to change up the plot. I got quite a bit of the setting from the Public Domain Edition: Mahabharata chapter, The Arrival of Karna. One thing that was different in both the PDE version and the Epified video was that in the PDE version, Kunti did know who Karna was from the beginning. It's written that she could tell from his voice that he was her son, but I decided to stick to the Epified video version to add more drama the story.