Wives of Karna

Details about marital life of Karna, one the prominent figures of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, is hardly provided in the narrative.

In the Stri Parva of the epic, one of them is mentioned as the mother of Vrishasena and Sushena, the most prominent sons of Karna.

The Tamil play Karna Moksham portray Ponnuruvi as his wife, while the regional Kashidasi Mahabharata states her to be Padmavati.

My heart also, O Krishna, and all the bonds of affection and love, are fixed on them.In the epic's Stri Parva, Gandhari, the mother of Duryodhana (antagonist of the Mahabharata), describes the grief of women after the Kurukshetra War.

[1] Behold, the wife of Karna and mother of Vrishasena, is indulging in piteous lamentations and crying and weeping and falling upon the ground!

That lady, the mother of Sushena, exceedingly afflicted and uttering cries of woe, is falling down, deprived of her senses, at the sight of the mighty-armed and brave Karna prostrated on the earth, with his waist still encircled with a belt of gold.

Lal, a professor and translator of the Mahabharata, interprets three unnamed women as Karna wives, all belonging to the Sūta (charioteer) caste.

[4] The wife of Karna belonging to the Sūta (charioteer) community is attested as Vrushali (also spelt as Vrishali) in the Marathi novels Mritunjaya (by Shivaji Sawant) and Radheya (by Ranjit Desai).

[5] According to mythologist Dr. Pradeep Bhattacharya, the creation of this name can be attributed to Sawant and it parallels with "Panchali"—the heroine of the Mahabharata.

According to scholar Pradip Bhattacharya, Supriya is entirely a creation of the author Shivaji Sawant and her name is similar to Subhadra, the wife of Karna's rival Arjuna.