The real hero of mahabharata!

12] Role in kurukshetra war!

Karna only enters the battlefield on the 11th day, after bhishma was struck down the previous day. It is also interesting to note that he does not capture any of the Pandavas even though he had defeated them and had the opportunity of doing so.

On the thirteenth day of the battle, dronacharya organized a special formation for the phalanxes called the Chakravyuha/Padmavyuha. Only krishna and arjuna on the Pandavas' side knew how to break the scheme; however both were purposely taken away from the battle field by two kings on duryodhana's side.

Abhimanyu, arjuna's son had partial knowledge of the formation having heard it when he was in his mother's womb when arjuna, his father, was narrating the Chakravyuha arrangement to his mother, subhadra, but could not hear all the information as his mother fell asleep in arjuna's lap.

Hence, he could enter the Chakravyuha, but did not know how to exit it. It was decided that abhimanyu would lead the Pandavas into the Chakravyuha and then they would fight their way out. No one that day was able to defeat abhimanyu, who had entered the Chakravyuha a circular arrangement of soldiers. But Jayadratha, a king in the Kaurava army, prevented the other pandavas from entering the formation. Abhimanyu was left all alone in the middle of the enemy formation.

Once inside, he fought valiantly and single handedly defeated almost all reputed generals of the kauravas including karna, Drona and Duryodhana.

Duryodhana and Karna chose to assist to eliminate abhimanyu as per the instructions of Drona. Karna shot arrows that broke Abhimanyu's bow and the reins of his chariot, while the Kauravas overwhelmed him. The battle ends with abhimanyu's death. His father, Arjuna takes up a terrible pledge to kill Jayadratha the next day before the sunset, or he would sacrifice his own life by self-immolation.

On the fourteenth day, the battle uncharacteristically spilled over into the night and ghatotkacha, the half-asura son of the pandava Bhima began decimating the kaurava forces (asuras became extraordinarily powerful at night).

Duryodhana and karna bravely stood and fought with him. Finally when it semmed that ghatotkacha would decimate all the kaurava forces that very night, Duryodhana requested karna to salvage the situation.Thus,he was forced to use the vasavi shakti weapon on ghatotkacha. This had been granted to him by lord Indra as a mark of respect for his peerless generosity. However, lord Indra allowed karna to use the weapon only once, after which it would return to Indra.

Karna was now without that weapon and his impregnable armour and earrings. Now karna did not have a divine weapon that was a serious threat to Arjuna and would have to rely primarily on his skills and prowess to take on Arjuna, who was equipped with a wider range of divine weaponry. Still, karna knew that he must face Arjuna in battle and one of the two would certainly die.

On the fifteenth day of battle, dronacharya, the guru of the warriors on both sides, is killed by unfair means. Yudishtra, who could not tell a lie, names an elephant ashwathatmma, the son of drona and kills the elephant.

He then announces that ashwathama, the elephant has been killed, with the word elephant drowned out. Drona is killed in his sorrow and karna is appointed as the commander-and-chief of the kaurava forces. In individual confrontations on the battlefield, karna defeats all the pandavas, except Arjuna, but chooses to spare their lives, keeping his promise to his mother kunti.