by Kotru, Umesh
When she reached the side of Kunti, she was surprised to note that she was still in a trance and disoriented. Her white ashen face was completely drained of blood and her eyes looked larger than usual. Under the circumstances, the question of seeking her forgiveness for her own behaviour lately or describing the last journey of her son did not arise. So Dhatri brought her food and fed her with her own hands, without encountering any resistance. Then she made her bed and put her in it. In no time she was fast asleep. The trauma of the last few days had taken its toll as she looked older than her age in her sleep. Dhatri could no more take this scene and ran away to her room, after slowly closing the door of her mistress’s room.
Meanwhile the forlorn basket carrying its tiny passenger drifted along with the strong current of river Ashwa, the moon overhead being the only witness to the pathos of that scene. The boat’s shape enabled it to maintain a fairly good speed till the river Ashwa joined Charmanvati (known as Chambal these days). At the bend it got stuck for sometime till the current pushed it along. Further journey of the boat as it joined the mighty Ganga via the river Yamuna was uneventful and without any major obstacles. By the time it reached the Ganga, sun was about to rise in the east. It was a rough ride with the current of the Ganga, but its special shape and structure ensured that the boat did not tilt over and pose any danger to its little passenger. As luck would have it, the boat was slowly drifting towards the left bank of the river, which was dotted with populated areas in contrast to the right bank where there were hardly any habitations. Further progress of the boat was halted by a small jetty constructed adjacent to a river Ghat for the purpose of slowing the current to enable people to offer their daily obeisance to Surya. Since the sun was rising, people had already started gathering at the Ghat for offering prayers to Surya. Adhiratha, the charioteer of King Dhritarashtra of Hastinapura, who was the first to spot the strange boat, caught hold of it just when it was in the process of being carried away again by the swift current of the mighty Ganga. His surprise knew no bounds when he discovered the sleeping newborn baby inside the boat. While shouting to attract attention of his wife Radha, he picked up the baby in his arms. She rushed to the side of her husband and saw the lovely baby; but her feminine instinct immediately told her that the baby was starving and would die if not fed quickly. So their first thought was to rush home with the baby to feed him to ensure his safety. Other things could wait. Incidentally Adhiratha and Radha were a childless couple craving for a child.
During the journey to their humble home, the baby woke up and started crying. Presently he was fed cow’s milk which he gulped down and went to sleep in Radha’s arms. She was overjoyed and with eyes full of tears said to her husband, “Swamy, It seems that our prayers have been answered. We will keep this baby and bring him up as our own. What do you think?” He replied, “I agree with you. He is a gift from God in answer to our prayers. In fact he himself is godlike with these divine earrings and armour, which we cannot find in an ordinary human being. After consultation with the Brahmins he was named Vasushena since he was wearing a vasuvarma (signifying rich armour; the signification of ‘wealth’ in his name was further validated by his legendary generosity later in adult life). He also came to be known as Radheya or the Son of Radha, and more famously as Karna (signifying ear, because he was born with the divine earrings).
Chapter-4
Early Life
The arrival of Vasushena in the otherwise barren lives of Radha and Adhiratha brought unbounded joy with it for the family. The new arrival attracted almost the entire village to their humble dwelling and they became the envy of all, particularly the women, as nobody had ever seen such a lovely baby in the village. Although the parents lost no time in naming the baby as Vasushena after performance of elaborate rituals with the help of learned Brahmins, yet the baby came to be known better as Karna because of the conspicuous divine earrings he was born with. As regards the divine armour, Radha did her best to conceal the same under his garments and felt reassured that her action would protect her son against evil eye. After the arrival of Vasushena, the daily routine of Adhiratha and Radha got thoroughly disturbed. Adhiratha would absent himself frequently from his work at Hastinapura on one pretext or the other. One day Radha noticed that he was still sleeping when it was time to go to his work. She got very angry and woke him by saying, “Vasushena’s father, If you don’t change, you are going to lose your job sooner than later. Then all of us including your dear son will have to either beg or die of hunger.” Reference to his son made Adhiratha angry and he retorted, “Don’t you ever again mention the name of my Vasushena in this way, or I will pull your tongue out to prevent your using his name ever in a negative way. Now tell me what your problem is?” “I have no problem except that you have been neglecting your work lately,” said Radha; “Please get up and leave for work. You will still find your son and me in the house waiting for your return.” After this, he had no option except to leave for Hastinapura. But he had become so attached to his son that Radha, for fear of his losing his job, was forced to evict him physically from his home each time he feigned illness or any other excuse to stay home. She herself did not fare any better. Rarely did she keep her son out of her sight. She would carry him everywhere with her, both inside as well as outside the house. In her zeal, driven by unbounded love for the baby, she tried to even restrict Adhiratha’s access to her darling baby, which resulted in frequent quarrels between the two of them. In short Vasushena became the very centre of their universe the moment he entered their lives. They made good their lack of resources by showering tremendous love and affection on their baby. In the company of this wondrously attractive baby, they felt as if they were in heaven, and time began to fly as he grew lovelier by the day. He would entertain them with his antics and soon he was growing into a very healthy kid who looked much bigger than his age.
Radha began performing rituals to ward off evil eye almost on a daily basis. He began to be called Radheya in the village, the name which got stuck to him throughout his life. As usually happens in such cases, the jinx of being a childless couple was broken for Radha and Adhiratha after the arrival of Vasushena in their midst. To their utter joy, they were blessed with a number of children of their own. But this did not in any way diminish their love and affection for Vasushena, who continued to enjoy the pride of place in their lives. For a long time, Radheya’s mother did not allow him to venture outside his home for fear of the evil eye. It required his father’s intervention to be able to move out of his house. This was how he was no longer restricted to his home only and began to play with other children of his age in the village. Because of his strength and skills at any kind of game, nobody would mess up with him and he became a natural leader in the village. His family juniors would also feel protected in his presence, whenever they were allowed to venture outside their home. But even in his play Karna was different from other boys in the village, as he would soon lose interest in the games they played. While at home he would shape beautiful clay toys. Outside the home he would be interested in wrestling or cutting stout branches of trees, shaping them into bows and arrows and shooting them at imaginary targets. Other children could make nothing of this and soon lost interest in his antics and resumed their normal games. Because of his peculiar interests other children gradually started avoiding his company, leading to friction and frequent fist fights among the children, in which Karna always emerged as victor. Parents of children who suffered at his hands complained to Radha almost on a daily basis. Radha would scold him in their presence but the moment they left she would hug him and try to reason out things with him in a soft manner. One day when Karna was home, his younger brother came crying loudly, complaining of having been beaten by his friends for no fault of his. Radha tried to pacify him and took him away from the room in which Karna was sleeping but he cried louder so that his cries could reach the ears of his elder brother which eventually he succeeded in doing. Karna woke up with a start and on seeing his young
er brother crying and muttering the names of the boys who had beaten him up rushed out of the house in the direction of the field where the children were playing followed closely by Radha and the little brother. On seeing an angry Karna most of them fled but the remaining bore the brunt of his fury as they were soundly thrashed by him, resulting in injuries to some of them. It was only because of Radha that he was subdued and virtually dragged home where Radha locked him in a room for the night without food or water. Meanwhile, the parents of the children who had been thrashed by Karna barged into the house to complain and poor Radha had a very tough time mollifying them by showing them how she had punished her son for his action. She also did not take any food or water till Karna was freed from his lock-up next morning. When his younger brother told Karna about mother’s fast, he wept and said: “Maa, why did you fast when you did nothing wrong?” “How can a mother eat when her dear son is hungry?” replied Radha. “If you really feel sorry, promise me that you will not do anything rash in future. Are you aware how embarrassed I felt when all the neighbours were complaining against you? Consider yourself lucky that your father was not here. Otherwise you would have received a sound beating at his hands.” “Mother,” said Karna, “I promise that I will not repeat this rash act of mine. Please don’t tell Baba anything about this.” After this promise from Radha things returned to normal in the household.
Meanwhile Radheya was outgrowing every other young boy of his age in the village. With his special features and personality, anybody could see that the boy did not quite belong to the category of ordinary village lads. He was feared by other children of the village since that fight with them. This made him a loner and he would roam around the village and its outskirts aimlessly. The little play he still indulged in was with his juniors only. This change in her son’s behaviour did not escape the notice of Radha. She tried her level best to keep him engaged and even showered him with more motherly love and affection than before. One day she said, “Vasu, are you alright? Why do you look sad and withdrawn these days? Are you sure you are not hiding anything from your own mother when you know I can do anything for you?” “Why do you say so, Maa?” replied Radheya, “The whole village knows that my dear mother is the best in the world. There is no reason for me to be unhappy. The only thing is that I miss my Baba sometimes.” To cut further discussion short, he left and began to play with the little ones. During one of his visits to his village when Adhiratha was enjoying a smoke outside his house, he noticed the absence of Radheya from amongst his other children, who were playing merrily in the compound. In answer to his query he was told that he no longer plays with the village children and roams around the village all the time. On hearing these words, Adhiratha became concerned and left in search of his eldest son. After a lot of searching around and with the help of other children, he located Karna just outside the bush with an improvised bow and arrow in hand, trying to shoot at birds. In this getup, any observer could have mistaken Karna to be a Kshatriya prince. It then suddenly occurred to Adhiratha that his son was wasting his life in that village. What he needed was formal education and training in arms. He left his son playing his quaint game and quietly returned home, having resolved to take Karna with him to Hastinapura. The only problem was how to convince his wife.
After reaching home he called his wife to his side and told her what he had found her son doing in the bush. From her reaction he concluded that she was aware about the odd behaviour of her son. He said, “Why didn’t you tell me about this before?” Radha replied, “I was afraid of your reaction. But I had resolved to have a talk with you this time regarding Radheya’s future. We must start searching for a suitable wife for our dear son.” Hearing these words of his wife, Adhiratha became irritated and retorted, “Radha, like other women you also cannot think beyond marriage and children for your child. Are these things the only worthwhile things in this world? In a way you are not to be blamed as that is what you see all around in the world you live in. But you are forgetting something very important about your son.” “What is it, my dear?” said Radha, “For me there is no difference between Radheya and my other children.” Adhiratha said, “Let me tell you that today I observed Radheya at his weird play of making a bow and arrow out of branches of trees and shooting at birds. I am sure you will never figure out what it means. These traits along with his special features and personality made him look every inch a Kshatriya warrior. I am convinced that by lineage he belongs to some Kshatriya clan. In view of this I have resolved to take him with me to Hastinapura for his formal education and arms training”. He did not tell Radha how he had already secured his admission in the Gurukula of Guru Dronacharya. He continued, “Question of finding a suitable wife for him can wait for some time.” On hearing these words Radha burst into tears and said, “Swami, what you brand as my ignorance is not so. What you observed today was also noticed by me for the last two years, but I did not tell you for fear of losing son. I agree with you when you say that Radheya is a Kshatriya by birth. I shudder at the thought of my son being snatched away from me.” “I am not snatching away your son, but leading him to glory which is his due by birth,” said Adhiratha. “When he achieves glory he will still be hailed as Radheya, the proud son of a proud mother. Moreover, he is my son also. In your possessiveness you forget that fact. Would you like your dear son to rot away in this obscure village or rather see him having his tryst with destiny somewhere else in the mainstream of life where, God willing, he can even achieve his potential of becoming a King someday,” he concluded. Inwardly Radha was on the brink of panic and made a last ditch effort to salvage something from this unexpected development. She said, “Swami, can you promise me that we will arrange Vasu’s marriage as soon as possible.” Adhiratha felt angry but on seeing the teary eyes of his wife made the promise.
Without further discussion it was resolved that Radheya will accompany his father to Hastinapura in a few days. Naturally this piece of news, when reported to him by his younger brother, caused some mixed feelings in his mind. On the one hand he was excited at the prospect of visiting the capital city of Hastinapura for the first time in his life, along with its attendant prospect of making new friends. But on the other hand, he was also very sad and confused at leaving his family, particularly the mother whose loving caress while putting him to sleep he would miss the most. But the path of destiny, as everybody knows, is unidirectional and irreversible. So, as planned, the day came when Karna had to leave his childhood home and family behind. Since early morning there was lot of activity in Adhiratha’s home. Radha was shedding copious tears while packing things for her son and the children were excited because of the unusual activity going on in the house without realising its long term implications for them. Radheya himself did not know whether to feel sad or happy at the sudden turn of events leading to his change of residence. The only calm and composed person in the family that day was Adhiratha himself. Finally the actual moment of parting arrived. As Radheya hugged his mother for the last time before departure, the floodgates of bottled emotions inside him suddenly opened out, leading to uncontrolled sobbing on his part, which set off a chain reaction starting with Radha, and then the other children all joined in. All of them accompanied him up to some distance before returning home which, bereft of Karna, seemed empty to them.
In due course Adhiratha and Karna reached the outskirts of Hastinapura. After the emotional outburst at home, Karna had recovered his composure and fully enjoyed his foray into the brave new world. He bombarded his father with all sorts of questions, as everything he came across on the way seemed new to him. He became very excited when, as dusk was fast approaching, his father told him that they had finally reached Hastinapura. Never in his life had he seen so many people at one time; and the hurly-burly all around was a delightful novelty in contrast to his home, where people would have already retired for the day. He looked incredulously at the many fine buildings adorning the city streets. Most of them were multi-storied houses, in sharp contrast
with the single-storey mud houses of his native village. He was equally fascinated by the wide roads with lights on both sides and all types of carriages running in both directions. He said, “Baba, who has built these big houses, roads and all these carriages? Who lights these lamps and do they burn day and night?” Before he could pester Adhiratha with more questions, he was stopped in his tracks upon catching the first glimpse of the palaces of Hastinapura, which came into view in the distance and were brilliantly lit. He was dumb-founded and stunned into silence, with his mouth wide open. This provided an opportunity to Adhiratha to explain and answer some of his questions. While explaining things, he observed that his son was not even listening to his explanations. He was speechless and his mouth was still agape. Only his eyes were moving in their sockets and taking in the scenes he was observing on both sides of the road. With a smile Adhiratha stopped talking and left him to feast on his new experiences till they reached the gate of their dwelling. When Adhiratha put his hand on Karna’s shoulder, he woke up with a start and did not know where he was. Then he saw his father and the house he was pointing to and realised that they had reached their destination. But he continued to be in a state of daze for a long time till he was nudged again by his father as the dinner was ready. Fortunately for Adhiratha, he did not put any further questions to him that evening. Before going to bed he said, “Radheya, tomorrow we will go to see Guru Dronacharya for seeking admission in his Gurukula. Now go to sleep and if you need anything call me. Despite his best efforts, sleep eluded him. He simply could not forget his experiences of that day. It was after a long time that he fell asleep, only to enter a new dreamworld.