Kṛṣṇa and Karṇa: the offer of the throne

Classical

When Kṛṣṇa left the Kuru assembly, he took Karṇa up beside him on his chariot and drove out of the city. Dhṛtarāṣṭra later asked Sañjaya what Kṛṣṇa said, and Sañjaya repeated every word. Kṛṣṇa began by reminding Karṇa how learned he was: he had served brāhmaṇas, he knew the scriptures and the law, and he knew what the books said about sons born to an unmarried girl. Such a son, Kṛṣṇa said, belongs to the man who later marries the girl. Karṇa had been born in that way, and so he was, in law, the son of Pāṇḍu. Kṛṣṇa invited him to come with him now and be recognised as the eldest of the Pāṇḍavas, born before Yudhiṣṭhira.

Then Kṛṣṇa described the welcome that awaited him. The five Pāṇḍavas, Draupadī's sons, Abhimanyu and all the kings of their camp would fall at his feet. Queens would bring jars of water and herbs and jewels to bathe him in the royal consecration. The priest Dhaumya would pour the sacred fire, and Kṛṣṇa himself with all the Vṛṣṇis would install him as lord of the earth. Yudhiṣṭhira would be crown prince and hold a white fan behind him, Bhīma would hold the umbrella, and Arjuna would drive his chariot with the white horses, and at the sixth appointed time Draupadī herself would come to him as a wife. He ended by asking Karṇa to rule with his brothers and to gladden Kuntī.

Karṇa replied that he knew Kṛṣṇa spoke from friendship and affection. He admitted that in law he was Pāṇḍu's son, since Kuntī had borne him by Sūrya while still a maiden, and that she had abandoned him at birth at Sūrya's command. But the charioteer Adhiratha had found him, and Rādhā, his wife, had nursed him; she had cleaned him as a baby, and he could not rob her of her funeral offerings. Adhiratha had performed his birth rites, named him Vasuṣeṇa, and arranged his marriages, from which he had sons and grandsons. For the whole earth or all the gold in it he could not break those bonds. He also owed Duryodhana thirteen years of untroubled rule.

Karṇa added that Duryodhana had prepared for war because he counted on him to face Arjuna in single combat, and that he could not betray him through fear, temptation or even the tie of blood. If he withdrew now, it would be a disgrace for both him and Arjuna. He then described the coming war as a great sacrifice in which Kṛṣṇa would be the director, Arjuna the priest, Gāṇḍīva the ladle, and Dhṛtarāṣṭra's son the sacrificer, with his army as his wife. He confessed his remorse for the harsh words he had once said to the Pāṇḍavas for Duryodhana's sake. When Arjuna killed him, the cleansing rites of the sacrifice would begin, and when Duryodhana died it would end. He asked Kṛṣṇa only that the great kshatriyas die by weapons at Kurukṣetra.

Kṛṣṇa smiled and said that the empire seemed not to tempt him, and that the Pāṇḍavas' victory was therefore certain. He described the omens he had seen and told Karṇa to tell Droṇa, Bhīṣma and Kṛpa that the coming new moon, seven days away, was a good day to begin. Karṇa bowed to him and said, ‘Knowing everything, why do you still try to beguile me?’ He added that he could see the same omens, and that he and Duryodhana, Duḥśāsana and Śakuni would be the cause of the world's ruin. Karṇa went back to his own side.

Told by Sañjaya → Dhṛtarāṣṭra

Who: Kṛṣṇa, Karṇa, Kuntī, Adhiratha, Rādhā, Duryodhana

Bound to

Kṛṣṇa in Hastināpura: Duryodhana's plot and the cosmic form origin

Kuntī and Karṇa: the promise of five sons origin

Kunti's mantra and Karna's birth birth

Karna's curses: the beetle, the cow, and the sinking wheel mirror

Jambhul Akhyan: Draupadi's confession about Karna mirror

Places: Hastināpura

Where this comes from

read for this telling · Mahabharata, Ganguli translation (read via archive.org copy of the sacred-texts text) Udyoga Parva, Sections CXL–CXLIII

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