Karna — Karṇa — is the tragic hero of the Mahabharata: the secret eldest brother of the Pandavas, born of the sun-god Surya and abandoned at birth, who grew up scorned for low birth and became the loyal champion of the Pandavas’ enemy Duryodhana. Generous beyond measure, peerless in arms, and dogged by curses and ill-fortune at every turn, Karna is perhaps the most beloved character in the epic precisely because he is its greatest victim — a noble soul condemned by the circumstances of his birth.
The Abandoned Son of the Sun
Before her marriage, the princess Kunti tested a boon-mantra that summoned any god, and Surya appeared and gave her a son — born already wearing golden armour (kavacha) and earrings (kundala) fused to his body, making him invulnerable. Unwed and afraid, Kunti set the infant adrift on a river in a basket. He was found and raised by a charioteer (suta) and his wife, and so the son of a god grew up as the child of low-caste foster parents, taunted all his life as a sutaputra, a charioteer’s boy, denied the honours due his true worth.
The Curses
Karna’s life is shaped by a chain of curses that ensure his doom. Refused tuition by Drona for his low birth, he learned the supreme weapons by deceiving the warrior-sage Parashurama, claiming to be a brahmin; when a stinging insect bored into Karna’s thigh and he bore the pain in silence rather than wake his sleeping guru, Parashurama saw that only a warrior could endure so much, knew he had been deceived, and cursed him that he would forget his greatest weapon at the moment of his utmost need. A brahmin whose cow Karna accidentally killed cursed that his chariot wheel would sink into the earth when he was most vulnerable. Both curses come due in his final hour.
Friendship and Generosity
The one bright thread is loyalty. When the assembled princes mocked the unknown Karna at a tournament, only Duryodhana befriended him, crowning him king of Anga on the spot. Karna repaid that single act of acceptance with absolute, lifelong devotion to Duryodhana’s cause, even against the brothers he never knew were his own. His generosity was legendary: he was called Daanveer, “hero of giving,” for he never refused a request made to him. Knowing this, Indra — father of Arjuna — came disguised as a beggar and asked for Karna’s divine armour and earrings; Karna cut them from his own flesh and gave them away, stripping himself of his invulnerability rather than break his vow of charity.
The Death at Kurukshetra
Before the war, both Kunti and Krishna revealed to Karna that he was the eldest Pandava and offered him the throne and his brothers’ love — but he refused to abandon Duryodhana, who had stood by him when no one else would. He promised Kunti only that he would spare all her sons but Arjuna; one of them would die, so that she would have five sons either way. In the climactic duel, every curse converges: his chariot wheel sinks into the mud, he forgets the incantation for his ultimate weapon, and as he steps down unarmed to free the wheel, Arjuna — at Krishna’s urging — looses the fatal arrow. Karna dies as he lived, betrayed by fate and faithful to his friend. As he falls, Surya weeps in the sky, and the Pandavas learn only afterward that they have killed their own brother. Karna stands forever as the epic’s great meditation on loyalty, dignity, and the cruelty of a world that judges a man by his birth.