Karnabharam

[3] Karṇabhāram is essentially the retelling of an episode of the Indian epic Mahabharata but the story is presented in a different perspective in the play.

Karnabharam shows the valiant, generous, righteous Karna riding out towards the battle-ground, where his death under heart-wrenching circumstances is certain.

Mahamahopadhyaya T. Ganapati Sastri made this discovery as part of his field research at the site called Manalikkar located in Kanyakumari district, which is now within the city of Trivandrum (now Thiruvananthapuram).

[11] The play begins with a scene in which, a soldier sent by Duryodhana informs Karna that the time to go to the battlefield had arrived.

Karna finds himself filled with extreme agony and grief that manifest themselves from his whole demeanor, which was ironic given that it was a day of great battle for him (Shloka-6).

But, Karna cannot shake off his recent discovery of the fact that he was the eldest son of Kunti (Shloka-7), who did not want him to kill his arch enemy - and now also his younger brother - Arjuna (Shloka-8).

Karna wonders why, as it was customary, the receiver did not give the usual blessing of 'live long' (Sanskrit: दीर्घायु भव).

The play depicts Karna's mental agony a day before the Kurukshetra War, as he thinks about his past and his faith.

Karna, the protagonist is heroic and pathetic at the same time as he tries to find his place between the mocking and adulation of social forces on one side and the taunting challenges of fate on the other.

Karna lingers in one’s consciousness as the symbol of Universal man in search of his own self-the ultimate dilemma of existence.

The great warrior Karna, the son of Surya is seen disturbed and depressed in the war-field instead of being mighty and powerful.

The entry of Indra disguised as a Brahmin, follows, who cunningly takes away the divine Kavacha and Kundala from Karna.

Accepting the challenge from Arjuna and Krishna the revitalized Karna proceed to this ultimate fate heroically.

Second, in the original, Surya - Karna's father visits him in his dream and warns him of a possible cheating by Indra (Vanaparva).

In Karnabharam, a guilty Indra sends the weapon, which Karna refuses to accept, saying that he does not seek the return on charity.

It makes sense, because, if Karna did not know that Kunti was his mother until the announcement of war, then he only knew that his foster parents were Sutas - the charioteers of Duryodhana.

It is also worth noting that the Mangala Shloka of Karnabharam seeks blessings of the Narasimha avatar of Vishnu.

In this avatar, Vishnu is a furious and ferocious half-lion and half-man, who kills the demon Hiranyakashipu with his bare hands using the nails.

Invocation of Narasimha may stir the emotions of fear and cast the dark shadows of killing and death, which is also indicative of the nature of the plot of the play.

And yet, valiant Karna, the hero of Karnabharam, manages to retain his composure while telling the story of Parashurama's curse.

Indra seems curiously happy to have accomplished his goal of robbing Karna of his life-protecting armor and earrings with which he was born.

But, he also feels guilty of his own deceit, and so sends his messenger with an unfailing, deadly, single-use weapon called Vimala.

Karnabharam, the Sanskrit language play was staged at the Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi on 29 March 2001.

[18][19] Karnabharam is created by weaving together several instances and situations that have been mentioned in different parts of Mahabharata, but as it was customary, Bhasa made his own modifications [20] discussed above.

In the background is the story that identifies Karna as the son of Kunti, born of Surya (Sanskrit: सूर्य) at the time when she was still unmarried.

Kunti had a boon, given by Rishi Durvasa, which empowered her to invoke a god by chanting a mantra for obtaining a son.

Angered by this treachery, Parashurama cursed Karna that he would forget all his lie-begotten vidya in the moment of true need.

Every morning, Karna performed puja of Surya, followed by a session of charity wherein he granted all the favors requested by the people who came to him for help.

Karna suspected treachery, but since he did not want to break his vow of granting every wish made after his puja, he gave those two objects away.

Indra felt guilty at his own treachery and reciprocated by giving to Karna a single-use weapon that could never fail and caused certain death of the enemy for whom it was used.