Suryaputra Karna

BIRTH AND EDUCATION

"I have made the arrangements. Make it fast maharani Kunti, before anyone sees."

"Priyamvada, I'm doing such a bad thing... Surya Dev will never forgive me for this. I'm sorry my son, for my mistake you'll have to...." (She starts crying)

"Maharani Kunti, don't worry.... God is there with him. Now make it fast."

She puts the baby in the basket along with few coins and jewells and flows it into the river, crying uncontrollably.

"Adhirath mahodhay, from now onwards it's your responsibility to take care of this child. This child is a boon of Surya Dev. Trusting you I'll handover this child of maharani Kunti and Surya Dev."

"As you wish priyamvada, this child is mine now. Till I'm alive I won't let anyone harm him."

At Adhirath's house...

"Adhirath mahodhay, Radha has given birth to a son."

Adhirath secretly places Kunti's son next to her son.

"Radha...we are so fortunate..see now we have two sons."

"Yes arya, we are indeed fortunate. Please arya, name out children now."

"Okay Radha, since this child is the younger one, I'll name him Shon!"

"And our second son's name will be.. ( he takes him outside and stands opposite to the sun, facing it). Surya Dev, this child is yours, it's a boon from you to us. So today in front of you, with your permission, I name him Karna.... Surya...Putra....Karna.."

"Mata Radha, Karna is not your son. He was not born to you and...."

"Do you even know what you are blabbering? How dare you speak such things about my son!"

"No mata Radha,I'm telling the truth. If you want ask your husband or the women head..she was the one who did your delivery."

"Ok call her. If at all what ever you said is wrong...I'll cut your tongue! "

Women's head comes...

"Matha, you only tell the truth."

"Yes Radha,what ever he told is true. You gave birth only to one son. Karna is not your born son. Ask your husband. Didn't he tell you?"

"Arya, what is this? Who is this child then? Why did you tell me? I'm sorry arya, I can't accept Karna as my son. Till he proves he's worth being my son,I cannot accept him."

Adhirath becomes very sad. But he doesn't give up. He takes care of Karna. Karna many times tried to please his mother, but she didn't accept him as her son. But he had good relationship with his father and brother Shon.
Once when a snake had bitten his mother. The only thing that could save her was a flower which was deep under water. But Karna had got it for her and saved her life. From that time she started liking Karna and accepted him as her own child.

******************after many years*******************************

"Pitamaha Bhishma, please forgive my brother Shon, rajkumar Duryodhan, please tell your father and release my brother."

"Karna, your brother can't be forgiven. He is sentenced to death. He has a last wish. And also I had granted a wish to him that he can once ask me for what ever he wants. Tell him to ask for his life."

"Brata Shon, please ask for your life. Don't delay."

"Brata Karna, I had promised mahamahim that I won't ask for anything. I promise you that till you seek what you want, you won't accept failure."

The punishers brought hot boiling oil and pored into Shon's mouth killing him."

All were frightened and shocked by this act. Karna promised in front of Shon's dead body that he will not spare the king - Dritarashtra and pitamaha Bhishma.

Later, Karna became interested in the art of warfare and approached Dronacharya, an established teacher who taught the Kuru princes. But he refused to take Karna as his student, since Karna was not a Kshatriya. Dronacharya insulted Karna for being a mere suta-putra, son of a charioteer and asked him to help his father in riding chariot instead of trying to learn warfare. After being refused by Drona, Karna wanted to learn advanced skills of archery and hence he decided to learn from Parashurama, Drona's own guru.