Kuṇḍalāharaṇa Parva
This part of the Vana Parva of the Mahābhārata tells of two linked events. In the first, Bhagavān Sūrya appears to Karṇa in a dream as a brāhmaṇa and warns him that Indra is coming to take his kavaca (armour) and kuṇḍalas (earrings). The account then goes back to how Kuntī received a divine mantra, how she called on Sūrya, and how Karṇa was born and set afloat on a river. It ends with Indra’s visit, disguised as a brāhmaṇa, and Karṇa’s gift of the kavaca and kuṇḍalas, cut from his own body. In return he receives the Śakti weapon.
Sūrya warns Karṇa (Chapters 300–302)
Sūrya’s warning
Sūrya came to Karṇa in a dream in the form of a brāhmaṇa. He chose this form so that the warning could be given without show. He told Karṇa that Indra, the father of Arjuna, planned to come to him disguised as a brāhmaṇa asking for alms. His true purpose would be to get Karṇa’s divine kavaca, which was joined to his body, and his kuṇḍalas. As long as Karṇa had them, he could not be hurt in battle, and Arjuna could not win.
Sūrya urged Karṇa not to give the kavaca and kuṇḍalas when the disguised brāhmaṇa came. He said that Indra’s request would be a trick, meant to make his own son win. He said it would misuse the sacred bond between the one who gives and the one who receives.
Karṇa’s answer
Karṇa listened to Sūrya’s warning with full attention, and then he refused to follow it. By then he knew that the brāhmaṇa in the dream was Sūrya himself. He told him that he could not turn away a petitioner who came to him at the proper time for giving. His vow of dāna (giving) was complete and had no conditions. To refuse a gift to a true petitioner would destroy the very quality for which he was known and by which he lived. To him, the fame (kīrti) that comes from such giving was worth more than life, and certainly more than being safe from harm.
He thanked Sūrya for his care. He also made one promise. If Indra came disguised and asked for the kavaca and kuṇḍalas, Karṇa would ask in return for the Śakti weapon, the divine spear that could kill any one great warrior it was aimed at.
Kuntī’s mantra and Karṇa’s birth (Chapters 303–308)
The brāhmaṇa and the mantra
In the house of Kuntibhoja, when Kuntī was a girl, a brāhmaṇa whose name is not given came asking for shelter. Kuntibhoja gave Kuntī the task of serving him and seeing to his needs. For one full year she served him with perfect and unbroken care. She never missed a duty and never failed in hospitality. She served him sincerely, without the smallest lapse.
The brāhmaṇa was pleased with this year of service. He gave her a mantra from the Atharvaveda. With it she could call on any deva she chose and receive from him a son of divine quality. Then he disappeared.
Kuntī tests the mantra and Sūrya arrives
Kuntī was young and curious and did not yet understand what she held. She decided to try the mantra. She did it not with serious purpose but out of a girl’s curiosity. She chose Sūrya as the deva to call.
Sūrya appeared before her in his full divine form, dazzling and bright, with his attendants. Kuntī was frightened and at once asked him to go back. She explained that she had called him only out of curiosity and had not truly meant to ask for a son.
Sūrya told her that the mantra, once spoken, could not be called back. It had to bear its fruit. This was the nature of mantras of such power. If she refused to receive the son, the brāhmaṇa who gave her the mantra and her father Kuntibhoja would both be struck by the śāpa (curse) of the unspent power of the mantra. Sūrya also promised that her kanyātva (the state of a maiden) would be kept afterward, and that she would be restored to her former condition.
Kuntī’s conditions
Kuntī agreed, unwillingly, but with conditions. The son must be born with a divine kavaca and kuṇḍalas, as signs of his divine birth and as a guard against harm. Sūrya agreed.
Sūrya gave her a son through yogaśakti (the power of yoga), a divine power that kept her body unchanged. In due time Karṇa was born fully formed. He wore a natural golden kavaca joined to his skin and golden kuṇḍalas in his ears, the marks of being the direct son of Sūrya.
Karṇa is set afloat and found: Rādhākarṇaprāpti (Chapters 308–309)
The abandonment
Kuntī could not keep the child as an unmarried girl without ruin to her family and to her own future. She placed the baby in a wooden chest lined with cloth and gave him food for the journey. She set the chest adrift on the river Aśvanadī. The chest was carefully sealed. The child inside was safe, but he was left to the mercy of the river.
The chest flowed from the Aśvanadī into the Carmaṇvatī, from the Carmaṇvatī into the Yamunā, and from the Yamunā into the Gaṅgā. At last it came to rest near Campāpura, the capital of Aṅgadeśa.
Adhiratha and Rādhā find the child
Adhiratha, a sūta (charioteer) in the service of the Kuru household, and his wife Rādhā had no children. They saw the floating chest on the Gaṅgā and drew it to the shore. They opened it and found a radiant baby wearing natural golden armour and earrings. Rādhā took him as her own son at once, with complete motherly love.
The child was named Vāsusheṇa, the one born with wealth (the kavaca and kuṇḍalas). Because of Rādhā he was also called Rādheya. He grew up in the charioteer’s house, knowing himself as the son of Adhiratha and Rādhā. He stayed devoted to both of them all his life.
Karṇa’s training (Chapter 309)
Vāsusheṇa learned archery from Droṇācārya, who would not teach him the higher weapons because he was born a sūta. He then learned from Kṛpācārya. At last he went to Paraśurāma, the warrior-ṛshi of the Bhṛgu line, who taught only brāhmaṇas. Vāsusheṇa came to him as a brāhmaṇa. Paraśurāma accepted him and taught him every weapon, including the Brahmāstra.
One day, while Vāsusheṇa slept, a creature bored into his thigh. Through this painful event Paraśurāma learned that his student was not a brāhmaṇa. A brāhmaṇa would not have borne such pain in silence, out of fear of waking his guru. Paraśurāma spoke a śāpa on him: the Brahmāstra would not come to his mind at the most critical moment of his life, when he needed it most.
Indra takes the kavaca and kuṇḍalas (Chapter 310)
Indra came to Karṇa disguised as an old brāhmaṇa. He came at the proper time for giving, when Karṇa was handing out gifts after his daily rites, and he asked for alms.
Karṇa knew Indra at once. He told the disguised Indra to his face that he knew who was asking and why, and that he knew what the gift would cost him. Sūrya had warned him. But he could not refuse. His vow of dāna was at the very centre of who he was.
He took a knife and, without a moment’s pause, cut the kavaca from his body, peeling it from his living flesh. He took the kuṇḍalas from his own ears. He cut both from his own body and gave them to Indra, knowing well what he gave.
Indra was moved beyond what he had expected. He offered Karṇa any one vara (boon) in return. Karṇa asked for the Śakti weapon, just as he had promised Sūrya. Indra gave it on these terms. The Śakti would kill any one great warrior at whom Karṇa aimed it, but it could be used only once. After it was used, it would return to Indra’s hands.
Indra left. The Pāṇḍavas learned that the kavaca and kuṇḍalas had been given away, and they were relieved. They returned to Dvaitavana to complete the twelfth year of their exile.
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 300–310.
- Chapters 300–302: Sūrya’s warning and Karṇa’s answer.
- Chapters 303–308: the brāhmaṇa’s mantra; Sūrya’s arrival; Kuntī’s conditions; Karṇa’s birth.
- Chapters 308–309: Rādhākarṇaprāpti, Karṇa is set afloat and found by Adhiratha and Rādhā.
- Chapter 309: Karṇa’s training.
- Chapter 310: Indra takes the kavaca and kuṇḍalas.