Karna: the man who denied Gods, Kingdoms, and his own Mother; for the sake of his friend
@homebounddreamer: You said ‘Karna is a hero’ and I just couldn’t stop myself.
Karna! God… what can I say about Karna?
That he is a self-made man? That he is insanely sacrificial? That he is a man who stuck by his true brother? That he is an excellent friend? That he is a peerless warrior? That he is an embodiment of caste-based oppression (and he is included in the narrative to point this out)? That he was cheated into his death??? (Seriously, if the Gods hadn’t favoured the Pandavas… and Mahabharata isn’t written by the victors… it would be a wildly different story).
Without rehashing the entire Mahabharata, here are my reasons to love Karna:
1. Dronacharya refused to take him as a student as he was not Kshatriya, aka of lower caste (oppression counter:1).
2. So, Karna is like “fuck that I’ll go to your teacher and ask him to teach me” and goes to Parusharama. Now, Parashurama will take you as a student only if you are a Brahmin – an even higher caste (oppression counter: 2). So, Karna goes undercover as a Brahmin. The boy knows world ain’t fair and the oppressed must work around the rules set by the master class. Anyway… he learns and excels in warfare and archery.
3. And the reason why he gets caught – is his selflessness!! Like Parashurama is sleeping on his lap. Indra is super jealous Karna will be better than his son, so he becomes a scorpion, and starts burrowing into Karna’s thighs while Paraashurama is sleeping on his lap (so, Karna will jerk up in pain, Parashurama will lose his sleep and with his infamous temper curse Karna). Only, Karna bears the pain, so as to not disturb his teacher’s pain – the scorpion digs through his thigh and comes out the other side – and Parashurama wakes and sees the copious amount of blood. Parashurama realises that Karna is not a Brahmin (as a Brahmin is not gonna tolerate that much pain for heroic ideals) and curses him for deceiving him (oppression counter: 3). And the curse is that he will forget all his knowledge when facing his most important enemy! Like dude… he literally let a scorpion burrow through his thighs so that you can get your beauty sleep, and you curse him? Because he is not the right caste?????
4. Also in the tourney for the princes’ coming of age, Karna was NOT allowed to participate. In fact, he was publicly insulted (he was not a Kshatriya, how dare he presume to fight against Princes?). Truth is people knew, he was the only one who could probably beat Arjuna (the darling hero)! He was compared to a dog ffs! (oppression counter:4)
5. Duryodhana (actual name Suyodhana, but since the story is written by victors, they changed it later) immediately offered Karna the kingdom of Anga, thus starting a friendship of the ages. Only, people still didn’t let him fight against Arjuna – because though he might be a King now, the truth of his blood and birth cannot be remedied (oppression counter: 5).
6. Karna taking an oath that as a King that anyone who comes to his door and requests alms will not leave empty-handed – he was canonically the most generous!!!
7. Listen, I love Draupadi (honestly, any woman who unbraids her hair, takes an oath and ties it back up only after washing her hair with her enemies’ blood is too iconic not to love). However, the girl was a casteist like the rest of them. Karna was able to wield the heavy bow and about to shoot, when Draupadi stated that she will not marry a sutaputra!! He maybe a king, but he is not the right caste, hence he cannot take part in the competition. (oppression counter: 6) And then she marries Arjuna for winning the competition, and says okay when she must to be the wife of his four brothers too!
At this point if he didn’t have a lifelong hatred of Arjuna – I’d be shocked.
8. The friendship between Duryodhana and Karna is LEGEN-WAIT FOR IT-DARY. They invented bromance!