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STORIES · THE MAHĀBHĀRATA · Karṇa
The Fall of Karṇa: the Sinking Wheel
Classical
The great duel is fought in the afternoon of the seventeenth day with both armies watching. Arjuna cuts down Karṇa's followers, and Karṇa answers with a hundred arrows when the string of Gāṇḍīva snaps. The snake Aśvasena, whose mother Arjuna killed at Khāṇḍava, has slipped into an arrow Karṇa has long kept for Arjuna, and Karṇa shoots it at Arjuna's head. Kṛṣṇa presses the chariot into the ground, so that the arrow takes only the diadem. Arjuna kills the snake.
Arjuna now breaks Karṇa's armour and diadem and wounds him so badly that he stands stunned, bow dropped. Arjuna, observing the rule against striking a helpless man, holds his hand. Kṛṣṇa tells him not to be a fool: the wise never spare a foe, and Karṇa will rise again. Arjuna shoots him again, and Karṇa recovers enough to loose the brahmāstra.
Then the curse falls due. The earth swallows the left wheel of his chariot, the curse of a brahmin whose sacrificial cow's calf Karṇa had once shot by accident, and the brahmāstra that Paraśurāma gave him slips from his memory. Karṇa rails at dharma, saying it destroys those who follow it. He gets down, grips the wheel and lifts it by main strength so that the earth rises four fingers' breadth, but he cannot free it.
He calls out to Arjuna to wait, citing the rules: no striking one who is unarmed, in distress, or turned away. Kṛṣṇa replies that this is a fine moment to remember dharma. Where was it, he asks, when Draupadī was dragged into the hall, when the Pāṇḍavas were sent into exile, and when Abhimanyu was killed by six warriors together? Karṇa bows his head and answers nothing. Arjuna, filled with fury, fires his Agni weapon; Karṇa answers with Varuṇa, then draws a deadly arrow that pierces Arjuna's chest and drops the Gāṇḍīva.
While Arjuna is dazed, Karṇa jumps down once more and strains at the wheel without success. Arjuna recovers, and Kṛṣṇa tells him to cut off Karṇa's head before he reaches his chariot. Arjuna cuts down Karṇa's elephant-rope banner and loosens the anjalika arrow. The head falls, and a light is seen rising from the body to the sun. Śalya drives the empty chariot away. Bhīma dances for joy, the Pāṇḍavas blow their conches, and Duryodhana weeps.
Told by Sañjaya → Dhṛtarāṣṭra
Who: Karṇa, Arjuna, Kṛṣṇa, Śalya, Duryodhana
Bound to
Karna's curses: the beetle, the cow, and the sinking wheel curse
Karna was the demon-king Dambhodbhava with 1000 armours origin
Kuṇḍala-haraṇa mirror
Khāṇḍava-daha mirror
Kuntī Reveals Karṇa's Birth at the Water-Offering origin
Karṇa Made Commander (Karṇa-senāpatya) origin
Śalya Becomes Karṇa's Charioteer origin
Arjuna's Gāṇḍīva Vow and the Near-Killing of Yudhishthira origin
The Last Day: Śalya and Śakuni Fall origin
Yudhiṣṭhira's Visit to Hell mirror
Places: Kurukṣetra
Where this comes from
- read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (text as scanned on archive.org; mahabharataonline.com section pages could not be opened from the working environment) Karna Parva, Sections LXXXIX-XCII