Karna: The warrior

Karna was one of the greatest warriors and the only warrior believed to be able to defeat Arjuna in battle, an admiration expressed by Lord Krishna and Bhishma.

Karna was the closest friend of Duryodhana and fought on his behalf against the Pandavas (his brothers) in the Kurukshetra War.

Birth 

Karna was the son of Surya, born to Kunti before her marriage. As a young woman Kunti, the princess of the Kunti Kingdom, had been granted a boon by Durvasa muni that she can able to invoke any deity to give her a child. Eager to test the power, while still unmarried, she called upon the solar deity Surya and was handed a son Karna wearing armour (Kavacha) and a pair of earrings (Kundala).

 Afraid of being an unwed mother, Kunti placed the baby in a basket and set him afloat on a river. The child was found by Adhiratha(a charioteer of King Dhritarashtra of Hastinapur) and his wife radha.

Education

Karna became interested in the art of warfare and approached Dronacharya, an established teacher who taught the Kuru princes. But he refused to take Karna as his student, since Karna was not a Kshatriya.After being refused by Drona, Karna wanted to learn advanced skills of archery and hence he decided to learn from Parashurama (Drona's own guru).  

As Parshurama only taught to Brahmins, Karna appeared before him as such. Parasurama knew that he is not brahman but because he was a worthy student Parashurama  accepted him and trained him to such a point that he declared Karna to be equal to himself in the art of warfare and archery.

Curses on karna

On a day towards the end of his training, Karna happened to offer Parashurama his lap so his guru could rest his head and take a nap. But while Parashurama was asleep, a bee stung Karna's thigh. Despite the pain, Karna did not move, so as not to disturb his guru.

With blood oozing from his wound, Parashurama woke up and at once deduced that Karna was not a Brahmin. Enraged, Parashurama accused Karna of stealing knowledge, and laid curse upon Karna that Karna would only lose the knowledge when he needed it most when fighting against an equal warrior. Rewarding Karna's diligence, he gave him his personal celestial weapon Bhargavastra which no one else possessed. Repenting over a curse made in anger, and in order to nullify said curse, Parashurama gave Karna his personal bow Vijaya to be ever victorious in battle and blessed Karna with greatness.

Karna was also cursed by a Brahmin for killing his cow while practising his skills with bow and arrows. The Brahmin got angry and cursed him that he would become helpless and die in the same way the innocent cow had become, by his chariot wheels getting stuck in the ground.

Friendship with Duryodhana 

To display the skills of the Kuru princes, guru Dronacharya arranged a friendly tournament. Karna arrived at this tournament, uninvited, and surpassing Arjuna's feats, challenged him to a dual.

Kripacharya refused Karna his duel, asking first for his clan and kingdom; for according to the rules of duelling, only a prince could challenge Arjuna to a duel. Due to his low standing, Karna was not allowed to fight Arjuna. Duryodhana immediately offered Karna the throne of the kingdom of Anga, making him a king and hence eligible to fight a duel with Arjuna, When Karna asked him what he could do to repay him, Duryodhana told him that all he wanted was his friendship.

 Draupadi Swayamvara:  Draupadi refused to allow him to take part, rejecting him for being a "suta-putra".The entire kings and the assembled people insulted Karna for his low birth; only Duryodhana supported and argued for Karna, saying Great Sages, Philosophers, and Warriors have no source. They are made great, not born great.

Later karna did Digvijaya Yatra, conquering all kings in every direction and establish Duryodhana as the emperor of the world. again Karna helped Duryodhana to perform the Vaishnava yagna to please Vishnu and crown Duryodhana as "Emperor of the World". No person in the entire universe, except Lord Vishnu and Indrajit ( son of Ravana )had performed this Vaishnava sacrifice before.

It is said that, Duryodhana never shed a single tear drop for any of his real brothers who were killed in the battlefield, but when his beloved friend Karna was slain, he was inconsolable.

During Kurukshetra war

• Indra realized that Karna would be invincible in battle and unable to be killed as long as he had his Kavach and Kundal. He approaches Karna as a poor Brahmin during Karna's sun-worship. Surya warned Karna of Indra's intentions, but Karna thanked Surya and explained that he was bound by his word and could not send anyone from his door empty-handed and given his kavach and kundal as daan for lord indra.

• Kunti revealed the truth about Karna's birth. Surya Deva also validated the words of Kunti and Karna was emotionally weakened and she asked Karna to join the Pandavas, Karna refuses these offers over Duryodhana's friendship. Kunti extracted couple of promises from Karna that he will not kill any of the Pandavas except Arjuna and against Arjuna you should not use the same celestial weapon twice. thats why he did not use Nagastra and Rudraastra twice against Arjuna in battle. 

• Bhishma the commander-in-chief of the Kaurava army giving the reason that Karna had humiliated Draupadi and disrespected their shared guru Parashurama, he refuses to take him in the Kaurava army. Secretly, he knows of Karna’s birth and doesn't want Karna to fight his own brothers.Duryodhana wants Karna to fight in the war from the beginning, but Bhishma threatens that he will not fight if Karna is in the army, So Karna decides that he will not fight until the fall of Bhishma.

• On the morning of 11th day of battle ( but dronacharya as commander-in-chief ) , Surya offered his invincible chariot and his charioteer to Karna, just like Lord Indra who gave his chariot to Arjuna. The chariot of Surya was brilliant as the sun, yoked with 7 horses of different colors and only a person with divine vision could look into it. Karna rejects this offer, saying he didn't want to be remembered as a person who depended upon others strength to gain victory, indirectly referring to Arjuna who depended upon Lord Krishna.
  

• the battle on 14th day extended into the dark hours. Taking advantage of that was Ghatotkacha, Bhima’s half-Asura son, as asuras gained extraordinary power at night time. Ghatotkacha’s destroyed the Kaurava force and also injured Dronacharya. Seeing the desperate situation, following the order of duryodhana Karna used his Vasava Shakti (Kept it for Arjun) against Ghatotkacha and killed him. 
  

  
  

• On 16th Day As promised to Kunti, Karna aimed at killing only Arjuna. He fought with all the Pandava brothers except Arjuna and defeated them all in direct combat. After the terrible death of Dussasana, he ordered his charioteer Shalya to move towards Arjuna, deciding to finish him off for once and all. Karna used Nagastra, (celestial weapon that was used by Indrajit against Rama) but Krishna saved Arjuna from death by lowering their chariot wheel into the earth; the arrow strikes Arjuna's helmet instead of his head. 
  
  As promised to Kunti, Karna did not use the same weapon again. Regaining the upper hand, Karna has a chance to kill Arjuna but Lord Krishna realized that only miracles can save Arjuna from death and caused the Sun to set prematurely.

• On 17th Day Karna took his Vijaya bow for the first time in battle. Lord Krishna made plans to kill Karna by cheating. Karna used Bhargavastra against the Pandava army.

When Bhargavastra was invoked into existence for the 1sttime in history no one knows the counter weapon for it, Whoever opposes the weapon become dead and the entire Pandava army ran away from the battlefield fearing this weapon. there appeared millions and millions of ultra sharp arrows with blazing appearance. The sky was so filled with arrows that it appears like a cloud of arrows and even visibility was lost in the rain of arrows. The earth trembles and these arrows hit and killed hundreds of thousands of men, steeds, elephants and destroyed countless chariots. Even Krishna and Arjuna had to run away from the battle field in order to escape from that weapon.Seeing their plight, Karna repeatedly challenged Krishna and Arjuna to come face him in battle, but Krishna kept Arjuna away from the battlefield.

After the Bhargavastra was withdrawn, the battle resumed. Insulted by Yudhisthira, Arjuna returned to battle field.The two foes, Karna and Arjuna faced each other once more. Both Pandava and Kauvarava forces stopped their fight and assembled on there respective sides to witness the battle. All the Kauvarva's and Pandava's cheered their side and awaited the eagerly for witnessing the battle between Karna and Arjuna. As the battle started, the warriors on the battlefield and the Devas in heaven watched the battle in speechless amazement and terrified admiration of the strength and skill of these greatest of warriors.

Karna cut the string of Arjuna’s bow many times. As the battle intensified, Arjuna pushed back Karna's chariot 10 steps backward every time by the energy of the arrows, but Karna was only able to push Arjuna's chariot 2 steps backward. Seeing this Lord Krishna praised Karna and admired the skill of Karna. When questioned by Arjuna, Krishna said it is impossible for any human ever to push his chariot backwards because the chariot of Arjuna contains both Hanuman and Krishna, thus holding the entire weight of the universe. Even to shake the chariot is an impossible task, and Karna is pushing it 2 feet (0.61 m) every time by the energy of his arrows. Krishna said no human ever had or ever will attain this feat as it is impossible even to shake the chariot containing Maha Vishnu.

 Karna's chariot wheel was trapped in the mud as a result of the curse he had received earlier from a Brahmin. He still defended himself, but at the crucial moment, forgot the incantations to invoke Brahmanda astra, as a result of his guru Parashurama's curse. Karna got down from his chariot to free the wheel and asked Arjuna to pause, reminding him of the etiquette of war. But Krishna spurred Arjuna to attack Karna against the rules of engagement of the war, and the enraged Arjuna attacked Karna while he was trying to lift his sunken chariot wheel. Karna defended himself and invoked Rudraastra, hitting Arjuna on his chest.

wooning, Arjuna lost his grip on his Gandiva, which fell down from his hand for the first time. Following the rules of engagement of war, Karna did not try to kill the unconscious Arjuna but instead tried to utilize the time in extracting the wheels of his chariot. Arjuna recovered and using the Anjalika astra, decapitated the weaponless Karna, who was still trying to lift the sunken chariot wheel. 

Dharma-Devata's protection: when Arjuna used the Anjalika astra on weaponless Karna, Krishna found that Karna was still alive even though seriously wounded. Krishna found that Dharma-Devata, the Goddess responsible for protecting Dharma, was guarding Karna from death and resisting every arrows sent by Arjuna. Krishna explained to Arjuna that the Dharma-Devata herself was protecting Karna from death because of the massive good merit Karna earned by giving charity during his lifetime. Krishna said wherever Dharma is present there is victory and this time Dharma was with the side of Karna. So Krishna went down from his chariot and appeared as a Brahmin and asked for Karna's punya or merit, to him as charity. Karna gave his entire merits as charity to the Brahmin in the form of his blood and once Karna gifted his life's merit to him, Krishna rewarded Karna with the view of Krishna's Vishwaroopa. Krishna told that only this way it was possible to kill Karna and when Karna gave away his life's merit to Krishna, Dharma-Devata disappeared.

Though it was highly forbidden according to the rules of engagement of the war to attack a weaponless warrior or to attack an enemy from the back, Arjuna attacked Karna from the back and killed him as suggested by Krishna. It was later revealed that Karna could be killed only when all the 3 curses acted together upon him, and this made Krishna employ deceit to kill Karna.

Karna declared as the Superior Son

One tale relates that as Karna lays dying on the battlefield, Lord Surya and Arjuna's father Indra fall into a debate as to who among their sons is superior. They decide to test Karna's generosity and appear before him as Brahmins asking for alms. Karna says that at this point he had nothing to give them while one of the Brahmins remarks that he has some gold in his teeth. Realizing this, Karna promptly takes a stone and breaks his teeth, handing them over to the Brahmins, thus proving his superiority.