Karna

Born of the sun, raised in a charioteer's house

As a girl in her foster father Kuntibhoja's house, Kunti served the sage Durvasa so well that he gave her a mantra to summon any god. She tried it on Surya out of curiosity and bore a son who came into the world wearing natural armour and a pair of earrings. Afraid of disgrace, she set the baby adrift in a basket on the river Ashva. Near Champa the charioteer Adhiratha and his wife Radha found him. They named him Vasusena; the world called him Radheya, son of Radha, or sutaputra, the charioteer's son.

The tournament and the crown of Anga

He studied under Drona, then under Parashurama, who taught only brahmins, by claiming to be one. When an insect bored into his thigh while the teacher slept on his lap and he bore it without moving, Parashurama saw that no brahmin could stand such pain, and cursed him to forget his greatest weapon when he most needed it. A brahmin whose cow Karna had killed by accident added a second curse: the earth would swallow his chariot wheel.

At Drona's tournament in Hastinapura Karna matched Arjuna feat for feat, and when Kripa demanded his lineage, Duryodhana crowned him king of Anga on the spot. Karna gave him his loyalty for life. In the dice hall he called Draupadi a woman of five husbands and told Dushasana to strip her. Her refusal of him at her swayamvara, as a charioteer's son, is a later addition.

The armour, the secret and the promise

Indra, anxious for his son Arjuna, came disguised as a brahmin to ask for the armour and earrings. Surya had warned Karna in a dream, but he never refused a request; he cut them from his body and received the Vasava Shakti, a dart that would kill one enemy without fail. Before the war Krishna revealed that he was Kunti's eldest son and offered him the Pandava throne, and Kunti herself came to him by the Ganga. He refused both, but promised Kunti she would still have five sons: he would kill none of hers except Arjuna.

The sixteenth and seventeenth days

Bhishma rated him only half a chariot-warrior, so Karna stayed out of the fighting until the grandsire fell. He later defeated each of Arjuna's four brothers and let each go. On the fourteenth night, with Ghatotkacha tearing the Kaurava army apart, the dart saved for Arjuna went into Bhima's son instead. Karna commanded the Kauravas on the sixteenth and seventeenth days with a hostile Shalya driving him, and saw Arjuna kill his son Vrishasena.

In the final duel his wheel sank into the earth and the weapon left his memory, as the curses had said. He asked Arjuna to wait by the rules of war. Krishna reminded him of Draupadi in the hall and Abhimanyu in the wheel, and Arjuna cut off his head with the Anjalika arrow. Only at the funeral rites did Kunti tell her sons whom they had killed.

The generous enemy

The epic argues Karna's case from both sides. He was loyal and open-handed, and judged all his life by the caste of the man who raised him. He was also the loudest voice against Draupadi and one of the warriors who surrounded Abhimanyu. Readers who see a tragic hero and readers who see a man who knowingly chose the wrong side are reading the same text.