Bhīshma-Karṇa Saṃvāda

After Bhīshma Pitāmaha fell on the tenth day of the Kurukshetra war and lay on his śaraśayyā (bed of arrows), Karṇa came to him. Until then the two had been in open conflict. Bhīshma had refused to count Karṇa among the mahārathas (great chariot-warriors), and Karṇa had sworn not to fight while Bhīshma led the army. In this private talk Bhīshma tells Karṇa what he truly thinks of him, and Karṇa tells Bhīshma what is in his heart. The account is found in Bhīshma Parva, Chapter 122.

Ten days apart

For the first ten days of the war Karṇa kept his vow. Before the war he had said to Duryodhana: “I will not fight while Bhīshma is alive. Either Bhīshma or I will fight, not both together.”

It was not fear. It was pride and a deep hurt. In his count of chariot-warriors (the ratha count), Bhīshma had named Karṇa an ardhiratha (a half-ratha) and not a mahāratha. He had done it in public, in front of all the assembled kings. Karṇa could not fight under the command of one who had lowered his standing so openly.

For ten days Karṇa stood aside while the greatest battle of the age went on. He watched Arjuna and Bhīma on the Pāṇḍava side. He watched Bhīshma hold the whole Kaurava command alone with his wonderful archery. He watched his friends and allies die. Then Bhīshma fell.

Now Bhīshma lay on his bed of arrows, awake and calm, waiting for Uttarāyaṇa (the sun’s turn to the north). Karṇa went to him. (Mahābhārata, Bhīshma Parva, Chapter 122)

Karṇa at the bed of arrows

Karṇa came to Bhīshma with humility. Whatever pride and hurt had kept him from the battle, and whatever quarrel had stood between them, he came before the fallen grandsire as one warrior to another, and as a man to an elder whose end was near.

Bhīshma received Karṇa and spoke of his birth. Karṇa was the son of Bhagavān Sūrya by Kuntī, and Bhīshma gave him the respect due to one of divine birth. Bhīshma said it from his own lips at this moment. He had always known who Karṇa truly was. (Mahābhārata, Bhīshma Parva, Chapter 122)

Bhīshma explains the ardhiratha rank

Bhīshma explained why he had called Karṇa an ardhiratha. In his ratha count, the formal weighing of warriors before the war, he had placed Karṇa below a mahāratha. He said this was not scorn or hatred. It was a military judgment based on particular reasons.

Bhīshma named Karṇa’s great gifts. These were his divine armour (kavaca) and earrings (kuṇḍala), which he had given to Indra after Sūrya warned him; his bow Vijaya, which some traditions call equal to the Gāṇḍīva; his training under Paraśurāma; and his own sun-like glow. The ardhiratha rank, Bhīshma said, did not weigh Karṇa’s fighting power, which was very great. It weighed the special advantages Arjuna would have in their coming meeting: Kṛshṇa as his sārathi (charioteer), the Gāṇḍīva bow, the divine weapons given to him by many devas, and the fact that he was Nara to Kṛshṇa’s Nārāyaṇa.

Against Arjuna with Kṛshṇa, Bhīshma said, no single warrior, however great, was truly an equal. This was no failing of Karṇa’s. It was a matter of who Arjuna was. (Mahābhārata, Bhīshma Parva, Chapter 122)

Bhīshma on how the war will end

Bhīshma told Karṇa what he had told Duryodhana before the war, and had told Duryodhana again from the bed of arrows. Victory would go to Yudhishṭhira and the Pāṇḍavas. They had Bhagavān Kṛshṇa as their ally and guide, and their cause stood with dharma. (Mahābhārata, Bhīshma Parva, Chapter 122)

He had fought for ten days on the Kaurava side. He was bound by his oath of loyalty to whoever sat on the throne of Hastināpura. (Mahābhārata, Bhīshma Parva, Chapter 122)

Bhīshma praises Karṇa’s deeds

In this talk Bhīshma also spoke of Karṇa’s great deeds in battle, which the public ratha count had not honoured enough. He praised two in particular.

• Karṇa won Kāśī alone, to secure Duryodhana’s marriage. He beat the whole army of Kāśī by himself, which no ordinary warrior could have done.
• Karṇa fought Jarāsandha, the strongest king of his time, before the Rājasūya. In that fight Karṇa held Jarāsandha to a standstill. The match was equal, and Karṇa was not beaten. Even Bhīmasena could overcome Jarāsandha only with Kṛshṇa’s guidance.

These praises carried all the weight of the grandsire’s word. They were not flattery. They were an honest account of what Karṇa had done. (Mahābhārata, Bhīshma Parva, Chapter 122)

Karṇa’s reply

Karṇa heard Bhīshma without argument. In this private hour, away from the stage of pride and public honour that had marked their years before the war, Karṇa was a man standing before a dying elder.

He told Bhīshma what was in his heart. His loyalty to Duryodhana remained complete. Duryodhana was the friend who had honoured him when the world looked down on him as a sūta-putra (son of a charioteer). Karṇa would fight. He would fight against Arjuna. Whatever came of it, he would give his life for his friend.

Karṇa put this loyalty into words that held the whole of his dharma: “As Kṛshṇa is to Arjuna, so Duryodhana is to me.” Kṛshṇa was Arjuna’s refuge and guide and the ground of his being. In the same way Duryodhana had given Karṇa dignity, recognition and a kingdom when the world saw only his low birth, and Duryodhana was the firm ground of Karṇa’s life and loyalty. No telling of his divine birth and no word about how the war would end could move him from this.

Bhīshma blessed Karṇa to fight with full dharma, and to act on the field with the honour that fitted the warrior he truly was. With Bhīshma fallen and his blessing given, Karṇa was free to fight. (Mahābhārata, Bhīshma Parva, Chapter 122)

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Bhīshma Parva, Chapter 122 (the talk between Bhīshma and Karṇa)