Disclaimer - Agar Karn deewano ko mirchi lag jaye toh isme meri galti nahi hai I am just speaking rationally and on facts.
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Every 11th and 12th standard student knows that you get a group project to work around full year for History, Psychology and Political Science (other subs Idk), so basically you have to make documentary / Ppt, do skit and make booklet.
So this year we had taken the topic about Karn and Arjun for History.
So naturally I did a lot of research for many months and read many parts of BORI CE (As much as I could find) and then I came to know how much glorification of Karn has been done.
This might cause a heat, but I am going to say it anyways, Karn is not that of an important character in Mahabharat (Even BORI CE claims the same) And there are many facts that prove it.
One is that there is no mention of his wives in the authentic tales. Who was his wife ? Vrishali ? Supriya ? Padmavati ? Most of them come from fictional books written on Karn.
There was a Marathi novel by Ranjit Desai, titled Radheya and in there Vrishali first appears. The author didn't know the name of Karn's wife but because Karn is called Vrisha, he named his wife Vrishali in his book. And from there she became famous.
Supriya appears first in the book Mrityunjaya by Shivaji Sawant, and is deemed the second wife of Karn after Vrishali.
Padmavati appears in the Kashidasi Mahabharat and not there in authentic versions.
We don't know who was Karn's wife was or how many wives he had. It is said even Vedvyas didn't mention them.
Another is that if you remove Karn from the Mahabharat, besides Ghatotkach being alive, there are not many major changes that happen....
Like minor characters like Madri have more role in epic than Karn has. The only role he has is to instigate Duryodhan for war.
And now we come to comparison of Karn and Arjun. We have already done this many times in the book, but I believe it is an insult to both archers when we do it.
Arjun single-handedly defeated all Kuru warriors in Virat Yudh. And Karn ran away twice in that.
Arjun is someone who eliminated all 30 million Nivat-kavachas all alone ! Keep in mind even Trilok Vijayi Ravan, Atimaharathi Meghnad and Mahaveer Atikaya couldn't defeat them together. (They had a war for 100 something years, yet couldn't defeat Nivat-kavachas)
After the elimination of Nivat-kavachas, the Kalakeya (a clan of ferocious and extremely powerful Danavas) attacked him and used illusions, but he alone defeated them also.
During Khandav dahan, to let Aswasen (Son of Takshak) escape from the forest. Indra throws his Vajra at Arjun. Yes the the scaring Vajra that was used to eliminate entire races of Asurs, was shot at Dhananjay.
But you know what happened to him ? Arjun just lost his consciousness for a few moments, just for few moments and then was back on his feet.
During Khandav dahan, Arjun fought and defeated many gods, Gandharvas and demons who attacked him altogether.
And those who like to compare him with Eklavya, tell me could Eklavya achieve this feat if his thumb was not taken ?
Could Eklavya defeat Gods, Gandharvas, powerful Danavas like Nivat-kavachas and Kalakeya who even gods couldn't defeat ? Could he fight all of them alone ? He could never.
You know who else had war with Gandharvas ? Karn. What did he do ? He fought for a while and then ran away mounting on Vikarn's rath.
Arjun was Narottam, he always stayed humble and never lost his humility, Karn on the other hand was egoistic and boastful (shown many times in BORI CE).
And those who say both the archers had vices for each other then go and read the BORI CE.
Only Karn has hatred and jealousy towards Arjun, there was no feeling enmity from Dhananjay's side till Dyut Sabha.
When Karn called Draupadi a 'Vaishya' only then Arjun took an oath to kill him.
Frankly speaking, Karn is not a worthy comparison with Arjun. If you want to compare the valor of Dhananjay then compare it with Bhism and Indra.....but Arjun overpowered them also.
Even Mahadev said that there is no warrior in the three worlds who equals the valor of Arjun.
Why wouldn't he be unparalleled ? He was the incarnation of Bhagwaan Nar, the eternal, ancient, everlasting God according to Brahmadev.
Even Bhagwaan Parshuram has said that Bhism, Dron and Karn cannot defeat Arjun.
Krishna has said that Karn was not even the 16th of Arjun. Heck, Karn couldn't defeat his son Abhimanyu and Dhananjay's student Satyaki.
By comparing both the warriors you're not only belittling Arjun to a great extent but also insulting Karn by comparing him to warrior who is far superior to him.
You cannot compare someone who single-handedly defeated the huge armies of gods and demons with someone who used to boast about his abilities and then run away in battlefields.
I suppose the root of all these comparisons is because Karn and Arjun are brothers, and people have a soft corner for Karn...but if you read BORI CE, you will know Karn was not a worthy comparison for Arjun.
Out of sympathy, people think Karn was equal to Arjun, even I was one of the Karn fans because I took pity on Karn.
But till how far will sympathy take you ? It's was when I became more rational, I came to know Daanveer was not worth it.
Shri Krishna had called Karn - wicked, evil-souled, root of all wickedness.
And it is true, reading Mahabharat I realised that more than Duryodhan, Karn was adamant on having a war. Shakuni even advices Duryodhan to give 5 villages to Pandavas and avoid the war but Karn jumps in between and is like - Yudh karo, mai hu na.
And even Karn has confessed that he was afraid of Arjun to Indra dev when he asked for Vasavi.
When Karn himself accepts that Arjun scares him, when Paramatma Shri Krishna himself says that Arjun is far superior than Karn, they why are some not ready to accept it ???
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A/N
It was never army vs army, it was always Arjun vs army !
You know why ?
Because there is no one more powerful than a humble person with a warrior spirit that is driven by the greatest purpose.