Itihāsa / Mahābhārata chronicle / Udyoga · 27 of 50
27. Karṇa hears his birth
Udyoga (उद्योग)
Kṛṣṇa speaks first. Leaving Hāstinapura, he takes Karṇa up into his chariot and tells him whose son he is. Karṇa says he already knows. Then Kuntī finds Karṇa at the river where he worships the sun, and she says it herself. She is his mother. The sun is his father. The five men he has sworn to fight are his younger brothers. She asks him to come over.
He does not pretend he is unmoved. He is angry, and he is grieving, and he refuses. Duryodhana gave him a kingdom when the hall was laughing at his birth. He will not spend that gift by changing sides on the eve of the war, even for a mother, even for a true name. What he gives her instead is a terrible arithmetic. He will not kill Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīma, Nakula, or Sahadeva. He will seek only Arjuna. Either Arjuna falls or he does. She will still have five sons when the war is over. The promise is love and it is a cruelty, because it tells her which two of her children are the ones the war is allowed to spend.
Years earlier, near the end of the forest exile, Indra had come in a brahmin's form and asked for the earrings and the mail Karṇa was born with. Karṇa knew who was asking and gave them. In return he was given a weapon that can be used once. This page names the gift and the price. It does not describe the weapon and it does not describe the cutting. The once-only gift will be spent on the wrong son, on a night still ahead, and Kṛṣṇa will be glad when it is spent. Karṇa goes to the war knowing his brothers, and the brothers do not know him.
नेपालीमा
हस्तिनापुरबाट निस्कंदा कृष्णले कर्णलाई आफ्नो रथमा राखेर उनको जन्म बताउनुभयो। कर्णले आफूलाई पहिल्यै थाहा छ भने। अनि कुन्ती नदीकिनारमा कर्णकहाँ गइन्। उनले आफैँ भनिन्, म आमा हुँ, सूर्य पिता हुन्, पाँच पाण्डव कान्छा भाइ हुन्, र उनलाई आफूतिर आउन भनिन्। कर्ण रिसाए, र शोक गरे, र अस्वीकार गरे। दुर्योधनले जन्मलाई सभा हाँसिरहेको बेला उनलाई राज्य दिएका थिए। कर्णले आमालाई एउटा हिसाब दिए: युधिष्ठिर, भीम, नकुल, सहदेवलाई मार्ने छैनन्, अर्जुनलाई मात्र खोज्नेछन्। आमासँग पाँच छोरा बाँकी रहनेछन्। वर्षौंअघि, वनवासको अन्त्यतिर, इन्द्र ब्राह्मण भेषमा आएका थिए, र जन्मको कुण्डल र कवच मागेका थिए। कर्णले दिएका थिए। बदलामा एक पटक चल्ने अस्त्र पाएका थिए। यो पृष्ठले नाम लिन्छ। तरिका लेख्दैन।