The new book titled “the book of peace (Saanti parvam)” starts with the long chapter, “Instruction on the duty of kings (raja dharma anuSaasana parvam)”. Nearly five thousand stanzas of poetry are contained in this chapter alone.
Kunti reveals her secret
It was in the context of the last rites for the dead that Kunti revealed the secret of Karna’s birth to her other sons. (This was done in the final section of the last chapter. We had covered that much earlier). She wanted her sons, as the younger brothers, to perform the ritual themselves for Karna. Already Yudhishthira was overwhelmed with grief on account of the killing of all his kith and kin. The curse on Krishna and the Yadavas by Gandhari took his grief to new heights. The awareness, that the one whom he and his brothers had taken all along as the worst of enemies and one whom Arjuna killed at his own pressing request was, in fact, his elder brother, was too much for the righteous Pandava to bear.
Several sages lead by the venerable Narada paid a visit to the Pandavas at that time. Their mission was to congratulate the Pandavas on their great victory, at the same time to condole them for the loss of their dear ones.
Narada addressed Yudhishthira and said. “It is fortunate that you won this great and virtuous victory with your own strength and with the help of
That question made Yudhishthira to lose control of his pent up emotions. He replied. “You are right in one respect. I have won this war with the blessing of
The elder Pandava, then, told the sage the secret of Karna as was just revealed by his mother. He continued. “None of us realized that we fought against our own brother and killed him. We had heard about the visit of our mother to him and the promise he had made to spare four of us in battle. Yet, we did not suspect that the truth could be so tragic. In fact, now I remember that I often wondered at the resemblance of his feet to those of my mother. Why did we have to kill him? Why the wheels of chariot had to stick in mud at the crucial point in the battle?”
The curses on Karna
It was then that the sage narrated the story of Karna, how he was denied the knowledge of Brahmaastra by Drona, how he ended up as the disciple of “Rama with the axe (Parasurama)” and how all that effort was wasted because of the curse by his teacher.
Karna had approached the tempestuous Rama in the guise of a Brahmin. The ploy of a demon that attacked Karna taking the form of an insect did the damage. Karna had borne the pain with courage with the intent of not waking up his teacher who was sleeping on his lap. Parasurama did not have to think hard to see through Karna’s lie. A Brahmin, soft by nature, would not have tolerated the pain with that much courage. Parasurama cursed Karna that the latter would forget all that he had painstakingly learned when needed.
Narada also narrated the curse of another Brahmin whose cow was killed by Karna by mistake. It was this curse that caused the wheel of Karna’s chariot to sink at the crucial moment.
We had covered these stories earlier.
Karna’s tales of heroism
Sage Narada continued, going into the heroic deeds of Karna. He had helped Duryodhana to take the princess of Kalinga by force in the middle of her marriage (Swayamvaram). The kings who had gathered there in the hope of winning the hands of the princess had challenged Duryodhana for a fight. It was Karna’s skill alone that foiled their attack.
The great Jaraasandha of Magadha later invited him for a duel when he had heard about the pursuits of the latter. The king who had never tasted defeat (whom Bhima later killed before the war) realized that he was about to be beaten. At that point he gave up the fight and gifted Karna with the
The sage also told Yudhishthira how Indra induced Karna to gift him with the “in-built” armour and protecting ear rings (kavaca and kundala). It was in return that the king of gods gave the unfailing weapon, the Sakti, to Karna. Unfortunately for Karna, that was wasted on the son of Bhima, the powerful Ghatotkacha.
The intention of Narada was to soften the feelings of Yudhishthira by going into the greatness of Karna. The sage also tried to impress on the Pandava that circumstances lead to the downfall of his elder brother. There was no need to feel guilty for something that was inevitable.
A curse
Kunti tried in her way to console her son. She explained how hard she had tried to win her first born to the side of the Pandavs. If she had succeeded, Karna would have been alive now. Unfortunately, her elder son was adamant. She meant to say that there was no need to feel guilty. Karna refused to save himself from the impending tragedy.
But, the words of his mother took Yudhishthira’s mind in a different direction. All the tragedy could have been avoided, if only his mother had revealed her secret in time. So, it is said that the Pandava put a curse on all women in the world. “May women, henceforth, never be able to keep a secret!”
(To be continued)
