Epics - Mahabharata - Thoughts on Karna

One of my school friends commented that in all analyses of Mahabharata, Karna always came out the winner.To this, another friend responded thus:

I would like to comment on your take on Karnan - that he comes out a winner as always. I am not so sure about young Karnan being all that pure and good. Look at the basic tenet of his life - "I will support Duryodhana, even if he does openly ugly things like trying to burn the Pandavas live, or disrobing a woman in public - simply because he supported me - not so much out of any special love for me as out of envy and hatred for Arjuna". Some laudable philosophy, this! Covering this wrong basis by being generous to a fault isn't my idea of a good man. He was just another player in the great drama of life., with his own warts and all. Mahabharata merely chronicles the frailities of human behaviour. Even Krishna is not without deceit or flaws as per ordinary mortal assessment. At least he could take refuge in the explanation that what seemingly wrong things he did were to uphold dharma.

In response, here was my take on Karna:

Karna got a raw deal from his very birth, when his mother set him afloat in a basket down Ashwa nadhi. While he had all the attributes of a kshatriya prince, he was always denigrated for being a "sutaputra". Draupadi refused to let him participate in the swayamvara saying that she would not consider marrying a sutaputra. The great teacher Dronacharya insulted him and stopped him from competing against Arjun, for the fear that he might defeat his favorite pupil. At this competition, Kunti recognized Karna, as her son from his kavacham and karna kundalam. Still, she just watched him being insulted and shied away from acknowledging him as her son and a prince with as much right as Arjun to be at the tournament.

Lord Parashurama, Karna's teacher whom he adored, laid a curse on him that the great Brahmastra would fail him just when he would need it the most. Parashuram always knew that  Karna was a kshatriya, but cursed him only to enable pandavas to win, so peace may prevail - even if this meant Karna's death.

Later, just before the war in Kurukshetra started, his own mother Kunti asked him not to kill his brothers, which implied that she would rather he be killed. Indra, to save his son, asked Karna for his kavacham and karnakundalam because he knew that Karna would be invincible with those, and will pose a threat to his son Arjun. 

At kurukshetra, when Karna's chariot wheel got caught in the mud and he asked Arjuna to hold fire until he fixed the wheel, Krishna advised Arjuna not to think about war etiquette, but go ahead and shoot an arrow at Karna. Even when he lay dying on the battlefield, Krishna tested Karna by asking him for all the punya that he had earned in his lifetime. This too, Karna gave away willingly. Despite his generosity and self-righteousness, life dealt him a bad hand.

His one BIG mistake was his unfaltering allegiance to Duryodhana, who saved him from shame at Drona's tournament. He vowed his friendship to Duryodhana at that time and never cared to check again if that was misplaced. His word and loyalty became more important to him than dharma. He became so blind to dharma that he assisted Duryodhan in the game of dice and aided and abetted in Draupadi's vastraharan in Hastinapur court. But, of all his wrong doings, the atrocity that stands out most in mind is his firing an arrow from behind Abhimanyu's back to break his bow and to leave him defenseless. Having done that, he reveled, along with others in the kaurava army, in attacking  the young and valiant Abhimanyu mercilessly, blowing to the winds all rules of war.

Why did Karna get a raw deal in his life? It was his karma from his previous birth that was following him. Karna was an asura called Shashtrakavacha in his prior life. He had obtained a boon from Lord Brahma that he would have 1000 kavachas and the person who would break his kavachas would die immediately. After that, he began his atrocities on earth. thus the Gods were worried that he would bring destruction upon them. 

 Hence, first Narayana penanced for 1000 Yrs and Nara fought 1000 Years with ShahasrKavacha and after 1000 Years, Nara was able to break his one Kavacha. The deal was that as Nara broke the Kavacha, he died, but Narayan due his penance of 1000 Yrs could get back life of Nara and Narayan starts fighting and Nara starts penance for the next 1000 years. Nara and Narayana alternatively penance and fight for 1000 years and the cycle continued till both were able to break 999 Kavachas. ShahastraKavacha hides himself behind the Surya with his last Kavacha due to fear that he would be killed by Nara and Narayana then. At this time, there is Pralaya on Earth due to the change of the Yuga. Thus ShashtraKavacha escapes death. In Dwapara Yuga, he was reborn as Karna with Kavacha and Nar and Narayan as Arjun and Krishna respectively. Shashtrakavacha took refuge under the Sun God Surya and was born as Karna to Surya and Kunti with kavacha and kundala.  This was why Indra had to beg for the kavacha from Karna for it was impossible for Indra to defeat him in battle.