Why just Mahabharata, Let me consider from all the Hindu epics so far !!
It’s not Lord Krishna / Rama / Shiva / Vishnu or some one else ! ( It doesn’t mean that i don’t like or worship them. Yes, I do. )
Presenting you the greatest warrior ever in the history of epics, who has taken the meaning of loyalty, kindness & charity to the next level !
Meet Mr.Daana veera soora Karna, Warrior of the Sun !
( If you are meeting him for the first time, let me tell you why he my favorite. But, before that let me elaborate his titles in order not to get my answer get collapsed by Quora moderators for the words in the answer that are not in English )
Daana - Habit of charity
Veera - Power of audacity
Soora - Potential of bravery
These habits of him make him one of the compelling roles in the epic Mahabharata !
A glimpse of his pitiable life :
- Karna is the premarital child born with armour (Kavacha) and a pair of ear rings (Kundala) for kunti and the sun god.
- He was left behind in a basket and set him afloat on the river ganga, by his mother kunti, as she was afraid of being an unwed mother.
- Adhiratha, a charioteer of King Dhritarashtra of Hastinapur found him on the banks of the river and brought him home. His wife radha raised the boy as their own son and named him Vasusena. He also came to be known as Radheya, the son of Radha.
- Due to karna’s interest in the art of warfare, he approached Dronacharya. But he refused to teach him as he was not Kshatriya. ( Kshatriya - people from ruling and military elite ).
- As Parshurama, dronacharya’s own guru only teach to Brahmins, Karna appeared before him as such. Parashurama accepted him and trained him to such a point that he declared Karna to be equal to himself in the art of warfare and archery.
- On a day towards the end of his training, Karna happened to offer Parashurama his lap so his guru could rest his head and take a nap. Lord Indra became afraid of the fighting prowess of Karna and he himself took the form of a bee and stung Karna's thigh in order to benefit his son Arjuna.
- Despite the pain, Karna did not move, so as not to disturb his guru. With blood oozing from his wound, Parashurama woke up and at once deduced that Karna was not a Brahmin. Enraged, Parashurama accused Karna of stealing knowledge, and laid curse upon Karna that he would forget all the knowledge required to wield the Brahmanda astra. :(
- Karna, once encountered a child who was crying over her pot of spilled ghee. As she refused to take new ghee & asked for the same ghee, he squeezed the soil to extract the ghee into her pot. Later Bhoomidevi, the Earth goddess cursed him that he will die helplessly for inflicting enormous pain on Mother Earth for the sake of a mere child. :(
- On a friendly duel tournament conducted by Dronacharya, Karna was not allowed to fight with Arjuna as he was from lower caste & get insulted by bheema as a stray dog, for his mixed caste and lineage. :(
- Duryodhana, the eldest of the one-hundred sons of the king Dhritarashtra, knew that his cousins Pandavas were better at warfare. Seeing Karna as a chance to get on even terms with them he immediately offered Karna the throne of the kingdom of Anga, making him a king and hence eligible to fight a duel with Arjuna. When Karna asked him what he could do to repay him, Duryodhana told him that all he wanted was his friendship ! :)
- Karna is not just a mighty bowman but also the one who won Jarasandha in wrestling. Only Balarama and Bhima ever did that. This happened when he helped Duryodhana marrying Bhanumathi. Such is the physical strength and power of Karna.
- Karna later married Vrushali belonging to the Suta caste, as per the wishes of his foster father Adiratha.
- Later after Pandavas were in exile after losing in tricky game played by Shakuni, Karna took up the task of establishing Duryodhana as the Emperor of the world. He waged wars all over the world and made submission of entire kingdoms in the world & came back to Hastinapura with immense wealth and power the world had never witnessed before.
- Indra realized that Karna would be invincible in battle and unable to be killed as long as he had his Kavach and Kundal. He approaches Karna as a poor Brahmin during Karna's sun-worship. As he was aware that he know him and what he wanted. He cut his armor and earrings off his body, and handed over them to Indra. Feeling ashamed, Indra asked Karna to accept a gift in return. Karna rejected this offer telling that he didn't give charity expecting anything in return.
- As the war approached, Kunti met Karna and in desperation to keep her children alive asked Karna to join the Pandavas. Kunti revealed the truth about Karna's birth. She extracted couple of promises from Karna that he will not kill any of the Pandavas except Arjuna and against Arjuna he will not use a same celestial weapon twice as she still would have 5 children !
- On the day of war, Karna is deeply disturbed by the discouraging words by his own charioteer Shalya, as he even chants reverences of Arjuna weakened him much emotionally.
- Lord Krishna, devices a plan and sends Ghatothkacha, the son of Bheema, to attack the camps of Kauravas. Ghatothkacha is blessed to die only through Brahmastram and therefore is killed by Karna, who loses out on his prime weapon. This changes the course of the battle and established Arjuna as the more powerful warrior.
- On the day Arjuna faced off with Karna, the weather was horrible because Indra (god of rain) was in full force to support his son. Arjuna’s chariot wheel was stuck in the mud while fighting Karna and Karna stopped fighting, because it was not fair. Krishna and Arjuna pulled the chariot wheel free and then the fighting resumed.
- On the last day, all his curses came into action which resulted in forgetting the incantations to divine weapons taught by Parasurama and also get discouraged much after failing to get his chariot wheel stuck out of earth. Even shalya left him saying that he is not a servant to help him out, which led Arjuna kill him by shooting an arrow ruthlessly into Karna’s chest, with the help of Krishna. :(
- Lord Krishna came in the form of a Brahmin asked him to donate his wealth in his last moments. Even while collapsing Karna took a rock, smashed his golden teeth and washed it by shooting the arrow by placing Gangaastra mantra on it gave it to the Brahmin. The Brahmin smiled and turned into Lord Krishna & praised him. Krishna showed Karna his Viswa swaroop. Karna was very glad and fell at Lord's feet and left this cruel world. :(
I don't know what kind of so called heroes they are, killing an unstoppable helpless warrior off his chariot against the war ethics, while trying to pull it out !
Pandavas may have won the war. Nevermind !
But, Karna has won our hearts !! :)
Now coming to your second question. Why ?
It’s not the fault of him
- for his birth & abandoned by his own mother ! :(
- getting cursed by heinous words by those so called heroic five people who are being said that they follow so called eternal laws all the time ! :(
- helping a little girl child for her grief in extracting her spilled ghee, and get cursed for that ! :(
- helping his teacher having a peaceful sleep on his lap, despite of irresistible pain of bee sting & getting cursed for that ! :(
- joining the wrong side, as duryodhana was the only guy helped him in such tough times by making him a king and a good friend ! :(
- losing the war even after getting many chances to kill all the pandavas, he let them live, just for the word given to his so called mother ! :(
Despite of all these painful curses and unfortunate consequences, he stood on his words by showing his loyalty towards friendship, significant nature of charity, and followed his values till the last breath.
He is not only a true gem of his kind !
He is not only just an impeccable warrior !
He is not only just an unbounded inspiration to anyone!
Besides that, he is a great human who have the kindest heart ever !
His flawless character have to be praised by everyone irrespective of religion !
If there are so called laws that punish the innocent people without even analysing the real circumstances, I will stand against such laws !
Remember my hero, even if the whole world is against you, I will be there by your side !
# Saaho Karna ( Translation : Hail Karna )
More power to you !!
_/\_Take a bow _/\_
Embrace at least a few values from his life and try to follow them ! :)
Thanks for your time :)
Source : Google, Wikipedia, Chaibisket, thoughtcloudstudio, Blogs etc..