The Death of Karna

On the seventeenth day of the war at Kurukshetra, the field waited for the duel that all had known must come: Karna against Arjuna, the son of the Sun against the son of Indra, the two greatest archers of the age. Karna had taken command of the Kaurava host after the fall of Drona, and he had sworn to Duryodhana that he would slay Arjuna or die in the attempt; and Arjuna, grieving still for his son Abhimanyu and burning to end the war, came against him at last. The two great warriors drove toward one another across the dust and the dead, and the armies of both sides drew back to watch, for they knew that the fate of the war hung upon this single combat.

Karna rode in a splendid chariot, and to drive it he had demanded a charioteer the equal of Krishna, who drove for Arjuna; and so Duryodhana had prevailed upon Shalya, the mighty king of Madra, to take Karna's reins. But Shalya, though he drove for Karna, was no friend to him in his heart; for Shalya was uncle to the Pandavas Nakula and Sahadeva, and had been tricked into the Kaurava cause, and bore Karna a grudge besides. And so the man who held Karna's reins was a hidden enemy, and would prove it before the day was out.