Epics of India Storybook

Karna has a dream in which his father (Surya, the sun god) appears to him and tells him to give up his armor and his earrings to Indra. Surya believes Karna will die without his armor, and Surya wants Karna to remain alive. Karna, on the other hand, does not fear death. He tells Surya, “I will not save my life by any meanness” (Buck 209), and in this interaction we see that Karna values honor and rightness more than life. He tells Surya that he will bargain with Indra, getting something in exchange for his armor. Suryra realizes that Karna desires fame and says to him, “you will have it” (210).

Indra comes to Karna, as Surya forewarned Karna in his dream. Indra asks for the armor, and Karna bargains with him. Indra knows that Karna desires fame. Karna asks for the “infallible dart” (211) that will not fail to kill the one at whom it is thrown, and they exchange the armor for the dart. Even more graphically, we see in this interaction that Karna desires fame (represented here as the dart with which he plans to kill Arjuna) over life (represented here as the protective armor that he is giving up).

After Krishna’s failed attempt to negotiate peace with Duryodhana, Karna joins Krishna in his chariot. Krishna explains to Karna that the war would be avoided if the Pandavas were to find out that Karna is their older brother. Karna, on the other hand, does not want the Pandavas to know. He provides two reasons for this. First, he wants to fulfill the purpose determined for him by his role in society: a warrior serving his king. He is Duryodhana’s warrior, and Arjuna is Yudhishthira’s warrior. If the Pandavas were to find out that he was their brother, the relationships would change and it would no longer be possible for him to fulfill his purpose. Second, he asks, “Are there any who have become immortal by not fighting?” On the surface, he is simply saying that he will die whether he fights against the Pandavas or not. But more than that, he could also be saying that he can achieve immortality by fighting. He may die in a literal sense, but the fame he seeks through killing Arjuna could be seen as a kind of immortality. Karna values fame and this immortality more than life.

These interactions between Karna and various gods changed my impression of Karna quite dramatically. Previously, I believed Karna served Duryodhana selflessly out of thankfulnes for the good things Duryodhana had done for him in the past; I viewed Karna as little more than Duryodhana’s lackey or muscleman. Since reading about these interactions in Buck’s version, I now view Karna as a person with strong beliefs about what is important and about his purpose in life, with a strong resolve to carry out that purpose, and with no fear of death.