Curse of Karna

Hello reader :) This is a response blog task given by my teacher. We have the paper of Pre Independence Indian English literature unit 2 The Curse of Karna. I am given three answers. 

Thyagaraja paramasiva kailasam-hailed as a great humourist and one of the doyens of kannada literature

 T P Kailasam (1884 to 1946), begins in southern Karnataka, where he was born (in the then Mysore state) on 29th July, in a Tamil speaking family. He spent part of his schooling days in Chennai. In college, he secured the first rank in BA and won the Cromarty Prize. Awarded the Damodaras Scholarship by the Mysore Government, he travelled to London in 1909 for higher studies in Geology. Returning to India in 1915 as a gold medallist in Geology from the Royal Geological Society, London, he gave up his job at the Government Geology Department in Mysore. In his own words, Kailasam remained ‘unemployed and unemployable’ for the rest of his life, dedicating it instead to his passion, creating literary works in Kannada. He also chaired the Kannada Sahitya Sammelana held in Madras in 1945.

1.Interpret the end of all Acts and Scenes.

In play there are five acts in the real text Line First page with title one line An in impression of Sophocles in five Acts

Act-1

Starts with Ragma's Aasrama

POOR karna ! Poor, Poor, karna All the Act and with this line.

This line is very significant with the Life Of karna he have Curse  with no mistake he was victim by Many people also he has doing nothing then by birth living in sootha family he was Suffered. 

Karna was Marginalised by gurus, warriors, princess, kings Many people he was only able speak  "A Brahmin's Curse"

In his life he was having his great Teacher curse

Ramaa

IF EVER YOU SHOULD HENCEFORTH 

SORELY NEED THE USE OF ARMS 

YOU’VE LEARNT OF ME.......THE BAREST 

TALK, THE MEREST THOUGHT OF THY 

SUPPOSED SOOTHA BIRTH CROSSING THY 

MIND...WILL SWELL THY HEART TO 

SENSE OF SHAME, WILL DULL THINE EYES AND MIND, NUMB AND PARALYSE 

THY LIMBS BEYOND THEIR PO’WR_ TO 

HELE. THER. MAKEN THES SLIGHTEST, 

SMALLEST USE OF KNOWLEDGE THAT 

YOU’VE LEARNT OF ME! AVAUNT! 

AVAUNT!, ERE I INFLICT A FURTHER 

CURSE ON THEE! 

2.Karna-The voice of subaltern

It is said that whatever is not described in the Mahabharata does not exist, even the Ramayana and all the 

Puraanas are summarized in this epic. The greatest of all Puraanas, the Srimad Bhagavata Maha Puraana are 

present there in Mahabharata. There are so many characters in the great epic Mahabharata but Karna comes 

across as the most evocative one. One cannot but be awed by his towering personality and sheer strength of 

character, and at the same time help to identify oneself with the moments of frailty in his tragic life. It is the 

realistic mix of nuances that makes Karna such a credible and lifelike character. The intriguing story of a hero 

who despite being born to royalty was brought up lovingly by a lowly charioteer and his wife, his whole life was 

one great struggle against cruel destiny and all the odds placed in his way by the inequities of his time.

The story of Karna begins with the misfortune of his secret birth and unfolds itself amidst the unremitting 

gloom of injustice and insult. A long time ago, a beautiful young princess named Kunti lived with her Uncle, 

King Kuntibhoj, in a lovely palace along the banks of a wide river. One day Maharishi Durvasa visited the palace 

of Kuntibhoja. He stayed there for almost a year. During his stay Kunti was given the responsibility of attending 

to his needs. Kunti served the Maharishi with great reverence without caring for her own comfort. The sage had a 

very peaceful and happy stay and wanted to reward Kunti for her services. Maharishi said, “Child, one day you 

will need the help of the Gods. I am going to teach you a secret mantra for inviting the Gods into your life. Be 

very careful with this mantra! Use it wisely.” (Sperling, 5) Early the next morning Kunti was playing by herself 

in the royal garden. The sun had risen and Kunti watched its rays touched a flower here, a leaf there. She felt its 

warmth on her skin. She thought about the Sun God waking up the whole world. Forgetting her promise to 

Durvasa, she began to recite the mantra. She closed her eyes and concentrated the way she had been taught to 

summon the Sun-God Surya who is compelled to give her a child, fearful that a child conceived before marriage 

may ruin her reputation, Kunti places the child- born with natural armour and divine earrings- in a wicker basket. 

She coated the basket with the wax to make it waterproof, and lined it with layers of the silk to make it soft and 

warm. She placed the baby carefully in his new bed and carried the basket to the river. Then she kissed him good-

bye and set the basket afloat and whispered, “May the Sun-God watch over you always and keep you safe. May 

you find parents who will love you and care for you.” 

Downstream, Adhiratha was sitting on a rock, hoping to catch a fish for the midday meal. He was a 

gentleman, a charioteer by trade, and his wife Radha was a gentle and good woman. They were often sad, 

however, for they were unable to have children. Adhiratha cast the line out over the river and sighed again, he 

waded out into the current and caught hold of the basket. His surprise knew no bounds when he discovered the 

sleeping newborn baby inside the boat. When Radha saw the tiny baby lying peacefully asleep, she was 

overjoyed and 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” (Zutushi, 60). 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 armor. After consultation with the 

Brahmins, he was named Vasushena since he was wearing a Vasu Varma (signifying rich armor; 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). Radheya was outgrowing like every other young boy of his age in the village. With hisspecial features and personality, anybody could see that the boy did not quite belong to the category of ordinary 

village lads. 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. Although he soon lose interest in the games that other boys played, while 

at home he would shape beautiful clay toys. Outside the home he would be interested in wrestling or cut stout 

branches of trees, shaping them into bows and arrows and shooting them at imaginary targets. Seeing his son in 

such getup Adhiratha decided to provide him a formal education. Adhiratha was particularly tense, as he recalled 

how Dronacharya had initially refused to do anything with a Suta Putra (charioteer’s son), and how he had to 

seek the intervention of King Dhritarashtra himself. Even after the royal intercession, Guru Dronacharya had only 

agreed to impart basic education and training in arms to his son. In due course both father and son entered the hut 

of Guru Dronacharya and touched his feet with due reverence. Karna was lodged in the section reserved for 

ordinary pupils and away from the section reserved for princes and other high caste students. After a few days 

when Adhiratha visited his son in his lodgings, he found him tense and somewhat angry as well. Before entering 

the room he had assured him that his son was very bright and a quick learner. But on entering the room he found 

him in a different frame of mind which made him apprehensive. On being asked, Karna started asking all sorts of 

questions with his father. He asked, “Baba is it a crime to be a Suta-Putra? Why do scriptures sanction this class-

based discrimination? Why the princes and other so-called upper-class students should be given better food, 

better lodgings, and better education as compared to students like me, who seem to have an inborn stigma 

attached to their names? Where does my fault lie in all this?” (Zutushi, 68) Similarly, this scenario is also denoted 

by the term ‘subaltern’ conventionally denotes an inferior military rank, it is more generally used as ‘a name for 

the general attribute of subordination in South Asian society’ often expressed in terms of caste and gender as it is 

being acquired at birth and is non-changeable. The term ‘Subaltern’ was coined by Ranjit Guha and later it 

was adopted by Marxist Antonio Gramsci and further it was discussed by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in her 

essay ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ People consider Subaltern as the unrepresented group of people in the 

society, people of inferior race, not fit for making any real contribution to the society and therefore they cannot 

speak, but in reality subaltern can speak but others do not have the patience to listen to them and same can be 

seen with Karna, he is capable but he ultimately he is Suta Putra. 

In real life he was Kshatriya, son of Princess Kunti and Sun. He was known as a Radhey sootha putra by birth his suffering is start he was innocent but for the caste he was victimized by others he was very brave and skilled soldiers but first Dronacharya denied to teach for his caste then he made fake identity as a brahmin for taking all the vidya from Ramaa(Parshuram) after taking Shiksha one day Ramaa know the truth they gave him curse he was forget this vidya on the time of battle then karna survive his life only Suyodhana was soft corner or friend of karna he give his one kingdom. Draupadi Swayamvaar was also able to win the competition but Draupadi refused to marry sootha putra. For any human this is very terrible judging by caste not by abilities. He was rusticated by Pandavas in the battlefield performance of kings and their vidyas. In the time of Draupadi's Chirharan he was the only man who was against those things he forgot he was the friend of Suyodhana and Draupadi denied to marry him then his care for a woman. 

If we see karna voice of subaltern in his whole life he was speak only one thing "A Brahmin's Curse" If we seen as colonial aspect the life colonized people also like curse they have curse on humanity like suffering by their color, culture, language, name of civilization and other many things in one line he was speak about whole subaltern people this is curse. 

3.Interpretation of Myths- Deconstruction

In the text which we are studying by T. P. Kailasam The curse of Karna he was Deconstruction Myth four times. 

Guru of Karna in the Mahabharat he was known as Parshuram in this text his name was Ramaa. 

Sometimes Ramaa felt the guilt to curse karna in myth there was no guilt. 

In the myth Draupadi has some soft corner for karna but in the text she was a bit arrogant princess. 

In the myth karnas most important friend known as a Duryodhan in text he was Suyodhana.