Monday 12 June 2017

Untold tales - Karna masters weapons.

There are some tales that are in Vyasa's epic but not referenced by Kasidasa. I will put some here.

A child was born to Kunti when she was not married. This child, who was destined to be a great warrior, was born with great energy. At a young age, he became a friend of Duryodhana. Seeing that Arjuna had mastered the weapons, the child, who was Karna, went to Drona and saod he wanted to learn the secret of the weapons, especially the weapon of Brahma.
Drona was partial towards Arjuna. He said he would only teach one who was a brahmana.
Hearing this, Karna left and went where Parashurama lived. He knew Parashurama hated Kshatriyas. He went to the sage and said he was a brahmin and wanted to learn the weapons. Parashurama, glad that a brahmin was interested in the art of the weapons, and agreed to teach him.

Karna began living with the sage and began his learning. He would go around and practice the weaponry in the wild. One day, when he was practicing, Karna accidentally killed a cow that belonged to a brahman.  Knowing that he had committed a sin, Karna went and told the brahman about this. In anger, the brahman cursed him, saying that when he was near the person he wanted to fight dearly, the erath would swallow the wheel of his chariot and would also would be the time of his death.

Dejected, Karna returned back to Parasurama.

Karna lived with the sage, serving him. From Parashurama, Karna learnt about the weapon of Brahma and many other celestial weapons.

One day, Parashurama was feeling faint, having fasted the whole day. He wanted to lie down. Karna sat of the ground and asked the sage to place his head on Karna's lap. Suddenly, Karna saw a worm about to bite Parashurama. Karna managed to deviate the worm, which came and stung Karna on his thigh. Karna was in great pain but he kept quiet, fearing that Parashurama may wake up. Soon the insect bite began bleeding and the blood touched Parashurama. The sage got up and saw what had happened.  He wanted to know who Karna really was. Parashurama said a true brahmana would not have been able to bear the pain of the insect bite. The worm then changed itself and became a rakshasa. He said the touch of Parashurama had relieved him. Parashurama asked him who he was. The rakshasa said - He was an asura named Dansa. He had raped the wife of sage Brighu had been thus cursed to become a work and live on filth till the touch of Parashurama would relieve him. Saying this, the rakshasa bowed his head and left.  
Parashurama then said to Karna - A brahmana would not be able to bear such pain. Who are you really?
Karna said He was a son of a Suta (charioteer), called Karna, who knew Radha as his mother. As he was desiorous of learning the skill of great weapons, he had come to the great sage in the guise of a brahmana.
Parashurama said - You have learnt the art of wielding the weapon of Brahma but it will not work for you when you really want this. Please leave.

Karna left, and going back to Duryodhana he said - I have mastered all weapons.



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