Partha (pārtha)

Partha means son of Pritha, Pritha being Kunti's given name, and although it can apply to any of her three sons it belongs in practice to Arjuna. Krishna uses it constantly in the Bhagavad Gita, and the choice is pointed: at the moment Arjuna is paralysed by kinship, he is addressed by the name that identifies him through his mother. The same maternal line makes Karna a Partha too, which no one on the field knows until it is far too late.