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Shanti Parva · Episode 1 · Chapters 1–5
Narada tells the grieving victor how his brother was doomed: a brahmin's cow, a lie to Parashurama, and a worm that bored into his thigh.
After the war, when the water had been offered to the dead, the Pandavas stayed outside the city for a month to purify themselves. Sages came to the bank of the Ganga to comfort Yudhishthira: Vyasa, Narada, Devala, Devasthana, Kanva and their pupils. Narada asked him whether he was happy now that the earth was his.
Yudhishthira said that this victory looked to him like defeat. His kinsmen were dead, and so were Abhimanyu and Draupadi's sons. And there was another grief. Kunti had kept a secret, and because of it he had killed his own elder brother. With Karna and Arjuna beside him, he said, he could have defeated even Indra. Then he asked Narada a question. How had the earth swallowed Karna's chariot wheel in the battle, and how had his brother come to be cursed? Narada answered him, and his answer is the whole story of Karna's curses as the Shanti Parva tells it.
It was as Yudhishthira said, Narada began. Nothing in battle could have stood against Karna and Arjuna together. But there was a secret of the gods behind it. The gods had wanted the kshatriyas, purified by weapons, to reach heaven, and so a child was born to an unmarried girl who would kindle the conflict. The boy was full of power, and he came to be known as a charioteer's son.
Karna learned archery from Drona, the Pandavas' own teacher. He watched Bhima's strength, Arjuna's speed, Yudhishthira's judgement, the good conduct of the twins, Arjuna's friendship with Krishna since boyhood, and the people's love for all of them, and it burned him. As a boy he became the friend of Duryodhana. He saw that Arjuna was ahead of him in archery, so he went to Drona alone and asked for the brahmastra, the weapon of Brahma, together with the secret of calling it back. He wanted to be Arjuna's equal in battle, he said. Surely Drona's love for his pupils was the same as his love for his son.
Drona's heart was with Arjuna, and he knew Karna's malice. The brahmastra, he said, may be known only by a brahmin who has kept his vows properly, or by a kshatriya who is an ascetic. No one else may ever know it.
Karna took his leave politely and went at once to Mount Mahendra, to Rama, the son of Jamadagni, whom later tradition calls Parashurama. He bowed his head to the ground and said, "I am a brahmin of Bhrigu's line." Rama asked him about his family and lineage, welcomed him and was very pleased with him. Karna lived on the mountain among gandharvas, rakshasas, yakshas and gods, learned the weapons in the proper way, and became dear to all of them.
One day Karna was walking alone on the seashore near the hermitage with his sword and bow. A brahmin there kept the daily fire offering, and by chance, without knowing it, Karna killed the cow the brahmin kept for the offering. He knew it was an accident, so he went and told the brahmin himself, and asked again and again for his forgiveness.
The brahmin was furious. You deserve death, he said. The man you always compete with, the man you strive against day and night: when you fight him, the earth will swallow your chariot wheel. Then, while your wheel is held by the earth, your enemy will strike off your head. You were careless when you killed my cow, and another will strike off your head when you are careless. Karna offered him cows, wealth and jewels. The whole world could not make my word false, the brahmin answered. Go or stay, as you please. Karna went back to Rama with his head bowed, afraid, and he could not stop thinking of it.
(When Karna tells this curse himself, on the last day of his life in the Karna Parva, he says that it was the cow's calf he shot. The Shanti Parva says the cow.)
Rama was pleased with Karna's strength, his humility, his self-control and his service, and he taught him the whole brahmastra in the proper way, with the method of calling it back. Karna stayed on in the hermitage and worked hard at archery.
One day Rama, weak from fasting, was walking near the hermitage with Karna. Trusting him, Rama lay down and slept with his head in Karna's lap. Then a worm came. It fed on flesh and blood and was terrible to touch, and it began to bore into Karna's thigh. Karna was afraid of waking his teacher, so he could not throw it off or kill it. He held back the unbearable pain with steady endurance, and he held Rama without trembling.
When the blood touched him, Rama woke. I have become impure, he said. What is this you are doing? Tell me the truth without fear. Karna told him about the worm, and Rama saw it. It was like a boar, with eight legs and sharp teeth, its body covered in bristles like needles, and its name was Alarka. As soon as Rama looked at it, it died.
Then a strange thing happened. In the sky there appeared a terrible rakshasa with a red neck and a dark body, riding on a cloud. He joined his palms and thanked Rama. You have freed me from hell, he said. Rama asked who he was. Long ago, in the age of the gods, the rakshasa said, I was a great asura named Gritsa. I carried off the dear wife of Bhrigu, your ancestor, by force, and his curse made me fall to the earth as a worm. I asked him when the curse would end, and he said, through Rama, of my own line. Then he bowed to Rama and went.
Rama turned to Karna in anger. No brahmin could ever bear such pain, he said. This endurance is a kshatriya's. Tell me the truth. Karna was afraid of a curse, and he tried to win his teacher's grace. Know me as a suta, he said, a charioteer, born between brahmin and kshatriya. People call me Karna, Radha's son. Be gracious to me. I wanted the weapon. A teacher who gives the knowledge of the Veda is a father, without any doubt, and that is why I named my lineage to you as Bhrigu's.
Karna had fallen to the ground, trembling, with his palms joined. Rama spoke to him in anger, almost laughing. You served me falsely, out of greed for a weapon, he said. So this brahmastra will come to you at every time except the time of your death, when you meet your equal. Brahma's power never stays firm in one who is not a brahmin. Go now. There is no place here for a liar. But on earth no kshatriya will be your equal in battle.
Karna went to Duryodhana and told him that he had mastered the weapons. Narada went on to tell how Karna made his name in the world. At the bride-choice of the daughter of King Chitrangada of Kalinga, the princess passed Duryodhana by. Duryodhana would not bear it. He put her on his chariot and challenged the assembled kings, and Karna followed on his chariot, sword in hand. With single razor-headed arrows Karna cut down the bows of the kings who rushed at them, and he drove them from the field. Duryodhana took the princess back to Hastinapura under Karna's guard.
When Jarasandha, the king of Magadha, heard of Karna's strength, he challenged him to single combat. Both of them knew the divine weapons, and they showered each other with every kind of weapon until their arrows were spent and their bows and swords were broken. Then they wrestled on the ground. Jarasandha's body had once been joined together by the demoness Jara, and Karna split it at the joint. Seeing his body come apart, Jarasandha said, "I am pleased with you." He let go of his enmity and gave Karna the city of Malini. Karna was king among the Angas, and with Duryodhana's consent he ruled Champa.
So Karna became famous on earth for the power of his weapons, Narada said. Then, for your sake, Indra begged him for the armour and the earrings he was born with, and Karna gave them away, bewildered by the god's illusion. Without them he was killed by Arjuna while Krishna watched. Narada counted the causes. The brahmin's curse. The curse of the great Rama. The boon he gave Kunti. Indra's illusion. Bhishma's slight, when he counted Karna as only half a chariot-warrior. Shalya's wearing down of his spirit. Krishna's strategy. And Arjuna's divine weapons, from Rudra, Indra, Yama, Varuna, Kubera, Drona and Kripa.
Your brother was cursed, Narada told Yudhishthira, and he was cheated by many. But you must not grieve for him. He died in battle.
The book does not let the grief end there. Narada falls silent, Kunti speaks, and Yudhishthira's sorrow for one brother becomes a wish to give up the whole kingdom he has won.
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