Karna & Pandavas

Boiling with youthful impatience, Karna wanted to demonstrate his newly acquired knowledge to win public acclaim.  In his desperate eagerness to prove himself, Karna rudely gate-crashed the graduation ceremony of Kuru princes to prove himself to be their equal, if not better, than the princes of royal blood.  Arjun, the star pupil of Guru Drona, was an obvious person for him to challenge.  Karna managed to replicate all the feats of Arjun and challenged him to a dual in front of everyone.

In accordance with rules of dueling across the world, Karna was asked to identify himself.  As introduction, it was customary is those days to recite the names of your ancestors and linage you came from as.  We still do that by way of introducing ourselves with our name and surname.  When formal, we still address senior members of our society / company / business associates by their surname.  Surname is a short-form of that ancient custom because it identifies our ancestral profession and hence our lineage.  Everyone, including Karna, knew that in accordance with rules of fair dueling, only people of equal rank and ability were allowed to challenge each other.  This rule is established across the world, from Japan to Europe, to avoid an unequal dual.  This protected a weaker person from accidently challenging a stronger person.  Karna, though equal in test of arms, was not an equal in social standing.  This automatically meant there could be no dual between the two brothers. 

Eager to see the Pandavas defeated, Duryodhan usurped the position of the king and gifted a minor fiefdom of Anga to Karna.  This way Karna would have the requisite title to challenge Arjun to a dual.  None of this could hide the fact that he was not raised as a prince and hence the possibility of a dual was dropped by the elders of the Kuru court.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

However, this one incidence tied Karna to prince Duryodhan for the rest of his life.  Grateful for acknowledgment of his skills and appreciative of the social standing that came with being crowned as king of Anga, Karna threw in his lot with the Kauravas and promised to support them regardless of any moral or ethical compulsions.  For sake of recognition and a title, Karna sold his soul to the first bidder.  He pledged unwavering loyalty to the first person to offer him friendship and power, without analyzing their suitability or its cost to himself of his own reputation.  

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             ( to be continued)

                                                                                      

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