A long post - please take time and feel free to give your comments.
Yesterdays episode has done immense injustice to the epic 'mithratha' between two humans who considered friendship above everything (even god and dharm -friendship is relatively simpler than dharm)
The episode instead of making one cry bitterly actually made me laugh (though i will miss Aham. Sharma as Karn).
None of the scenes they showed (in the name of adding creative/audience favoring twists to the epic) were true or even had the semblance of truth to the great epic. I know the last 3 episodes were largely targeted towards the karna against arjun and vasudev group, but yesterday's episode where duryodhana calls karna a 'kaunteya' and a betrayer was at its heights of distortion by CVs.
Just for the sake of clarity I am listing out the following so that some light is thrown on the darkness that has clouded a great friendship the Mahabharata ever recorded:
1. Arjuna definitely did not do the 'anthim sanskar" of Karna nor at any point of time Karna wanted Arjuna to do this.
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Yes, Karna did feel lucky/blessed to be killed by Arjun at the instructions of vasudev (who wouldnt!). That was the last pride of Karna, to be killed by a warrior of the likes of Arjuna. (Interestingly, in my opinion to Karna the next best option would have been to be killed by Maha mahim bhisma himself, if they had been fighting in the opposite side - i must admit Karna did have an ego - but still this is what makes him a warrior - all warriors have egos - infact all pandavas too had their respective egos-perhaps arjuna had the biggest ego which had to be constantly kept in check by Krishna)
2. Duryodhana and Karna did have true friendship between them.
What more could a sorrow be than to prove your friendship? (could we imagine us being questioned about our feelings towards our friends and the same being subject to ridicule!) extremely sad that karna and duryodhana even after being such epitomes of friendship be subjected to this sorrow by the CVs of Starbharat - that too just to deprive duryodhana of his most explicit positive character.
Whatever explanation the creative heads through sri krishna might give in this Starbharat to bash the friendship between Dury and Karn, it is just so not true - Mahabharat actually records dury grieving a hundred fold at karn s death than for the death of all his brothers combined - he is inconsolable at his death (love between brothers is natural but friendship is more precious and the loss of it hurts a lot more as it did dury ) It is said that dury actually fainted after hearing the death of Karn and he is quoted to say - what was victory after the death of his beloved Karn and bemoaning that what use of victory was to him without karn beside him.
True their friendship did stem from the mutual dislike of the one-sided applause and honour for Arjuna in the 'ran bhoomi', but like all friendships it did grow beyond that, can a son of surya, the ultimate source of light not see through the affection of dury, was he so naive that he could not see dury using him all those years??.No way. Their friendship was as true as the light shown through the rays of sun. It could never be hidden.
[interestingly Dury is so pleased to grant a suta a kingdom, just for participation/entry in a competition, but refuses to give pandavas needle points of land even after being virtually threatened by god himself]
Karn did indeed feel obligated towards dury for making him a kshatriya (by gifting Anga desh and thus giving him opportunity to participate) , but this obligation was different from the mithratha that he felt towards dury - for accepting him to be eligible as a kshatriya via his merits (recognition of his abilities).
It is this acceptance that makes Karn fight on behalf of Kauravas even though, just to strengthen his case he hides this behind his obligation on the face of his choice to fight for the pandavas(wouldn't we all fight for side where we are accepted and loved than where we are obligated to fight) Karn could have given a 1000 excuses to dury (the truth could have been the biggest excuse) if he had chosen to fight on behalf of pandavas or even to simply not participate in the battle, but deep in his heart, though he knew it was ultimately going to be a failure and adharm to fight for kauravas, he did fight in the name of and for the sake friendship (this only joy of his painful life) - we must salute him for that, if not for anything else. The trust that dury did have on karn was way above his trust on bhism pithama and drona combined - it was the trust in the friendship of karn and not his abilities - did not dury and karn know that bhisma was great than Karn? All of aryavarta would have known bhisma and his iccha mrithyu'.
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3. Kunti s affection for Karna
Of all the people, we should be bashing about - it is kunti who deserves to be bashed more (even more than dury or sakuni). Seriously the one person who sealed Karna's death was not even vasudev but Kunti - his own mother - the person who gave him life was responsible for taking it away too (wish she had killed him at his birth itself - all the sufferings of karn would have been saved). The moment she comes to see karna during his prayer cum daan time is what sealed his fate . She proved that day of her love towards arjuna and pandavas over karna (how can she feel love towards a son whom she never wanted the world to know or cared?). She had taken away everything from a son for whom she had given nothing but pain and humiliation. Which mother will not reveal the identiy of her son after seeing him in the ran bhoomi getting humiliated by his brothers. If she really wanted karn and arjuna to fight in same side she would have revealed this truth to arjuna before the war and not to karna (why did she not ask arjuna to spare karns life or vasudev to do some leela by making him not participate in the battle atleast).
Radha ma was right - kunti was indeed a crocodile - the worst version of a mother. That was the fate of Karna - mother, god, teacher, brothers all charting his downfall. But his greatness lies in accepting the treachery of all of them - he accepted his mothers treachery and gave her boons to save her honourable sons, he accepted the unfairness of his teacher and tried his best, he accepted the leela of god and refused kingdom and to fight for pandavas, he accepted the chaal of arjuna and accepted his arrows.
Life did not give karn anything but he gave away everything even life, without a second thought. He truly thought of others first and himself next - that is why he give such a boon to kunti so that he can both fullfil his vow to duryodhana and his mother.
4. Karna as Mrityunjaya - the conqueror of death.,
The rationale behind one of the names of karna as Mritunjaya - the winner or defeater or conqueror of death is very admirable. Death who conquers all was not able conquer Karna. He did conquer death by accepting it - only he accepted that he must die - one way or the other - the moment he knew that kurkshetra was certain that moment he know his death was imminent, he did not try to beat death, he only wanted his death to be honorable and most importantly he wanted to die before duryodhana so that he call both protect duryodhana till his last breath on earth and wait for his arrival in the afterlife, wherever that might be (indeed even hell is heaven if all friends are together). Karn was a warrior who embraced death. Even pitamah did not embrace death - the use of his iccha mrithyu to wait till auspicious time to die makes this clear.
Please do check this version of karn s death by BR chopra- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33ByuzbRh7A
- really hats off to him. At least he did not try to twist the truth to disort the friendship between karna and duryodhana. Duryodhana and karn might have been adharmis and deserved terrible deaths (yet great) but they were indeed friends and friends for eternity.
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