Karna

Spore Sprout believes that no one is too young for good theater.  Recently, he sat his ten-year-old and six-year-old down for five hours of Peter Brook's adaptation of The Mahabharata (albeit on DVD and abridged from the original nine hours of stage production).

The children wanted to discuss who each person's favorite character was, out of a cast of seeming hundreds.   Spore Sprout nominated Karna (Boy Sprout chose Yudhishthira and Girl Sprout Kunti).  They wanted to know the reasons for my choice -- why pick someone from the "other side" who fought against the hero Arjuna in his chariot driven by Krishna?

I explained that I thought Karna was heroic -- he was bigger than Life and more steadfast than Fate.

Karna was abandoned by his royal mother and raised by a chariot driver.   When he tried to take part in a martial competition as befit his skills, he was mocked by Arjuna and the other princes and noblemen.  Withdrawing in humiliation, Karna was called back by Duryodhana and granted title and land.  (In a line that I am fond of, Duryodhana said:  "Do not speak of Birth.  Birth is obscure and men are like rivers whose origins are often unknown.")  When Karna's true birth was revealed to him on the eve of battle as the first-born of the Pandava princes, he declined the proferred embrace of his brothers (and the attendant status, power and riches), but instead chose to remain loyal to Duryodhana, the Kaurava prince who had first shown him kindness.  Karna went into the great battle and, unarmed and defenceless with his chariot wheel caught in the earth, was struck down finally, against the rules of battle and codes of honor,  by Arjuna upon the urgings of Krishna.

ईश्वरः रहस्यमयरीतिमाचरति