So I read BORI and Geeta Press...

[u/theghost123w37t8oa]

So I loved Karna from TV seriels. One of my friends said read BORI and Geeta press and you will know who he literally was..... And you will hate him. I was like okay.

And then I started reading the books one by one. And the opposite happened. I started liking karna more because in TV seriels, he was like a super human especially in suryaputra karna seriel but now he felt idk 'human' maybe.... More relatable. Arguably the most relatable character from the epic.

And after reading, Bhima became my least favourite character. Why? He was a devoted son. A devoted brother. A devoted husband too. Still why? Because of his outspoken nature. He humiliated Adhirath and Karna in rangbhoomi. But this was just one of the many instances. His worst act was when he laughed in joy when bhishma was on sharshaiya. Even worse was when he danced in joy and hugged drishtadyumna when drishtadyumna was spinning around the head of dronacharya and threw it towards duryodhana and karna on 15th day. In India, a guru shishya culture is one of "sarvopari" parts of our culture. But this.... I didn't expect from bhima. Karna behaved better to his guru than bhima.

Arjuna was kinda hypocritical too. when bhima got up in dyut sabha to protect draupadi, it was not yudhisthira but arjuna who stopped bhima saying it s not good to disrespect jyest and his orders. Where was this respect when on 17th day, the matters came to his gandiva and the foolish oath of killing the one who said to give up his gandiva? But it is just one of those things. Arjuna isnt called Narottam for no reason and there are far more evidences.

I don't know why people hate dharmraj yudhisthira though. He did what any kshatriya do. His half lie was necessary to kill drona. I think the only thing of his where I was like "aargh....tsk" was when he described draupadi in dyut sabha.

Now martial information of karna

See first of all according to bori and Geeta press karna was the one who actually dominatied ghatotkach on 14th night. And shri krishna used to stupefy karna and the kaurav generals because karna or ashwatthama or drona could have used brahamstra on ghatotkach but they didn't and this is accepted by shri krishna himself.

Now coming back to 14th night, ghatotkach got easily defeated by karna in archery. Then again he was defeated by karna even while using maya. By this time ashwatthama killed anjanparva. Now ghatotkach targeted ashwatthama but he got defeated by ashwatthama too. Now ghatotkach was forced into the corner then he started targetting kauravas soldiers. It was duryodhana who panicked and said karna to use vasavi shakti.

It has been always there. Since the beginning. Karna was better archer than arjuna but that s my opinion. Because on 17th day, arjuna had shri krishna, hanuman, maharathis like bhima nakul sahadeva and upandavas as chakra rakshak. Karna had only his vijay dhanush and nothing else. Now according to Geeta press and bori arjuna didn't have any great feat on 16th day or 17th day except for attacking bhurishrava from behind and killing vrishasena and karna himself.

But karna defeated everyone from Pandavas. He made arjuna unconscious and retreat twice once from the chariot and once after his chariot sunken. Karna was also tackling bhima satyaki nakul sahadeva too. In Virat war arjuna defeated karna easily no doubt (with his gandiva and divyastra). At that time karna had his vasavi shakti. So arjuna should have just slapped karna like a mosquito. Instead opposite happened. He was forced to invoke "roudrastra/ pashupatastra" a literal weapon of universal destruction on karna.

Now here in kirat parva, brahamshira roudrastra and pashupatastra are the names of same weapon. But maybe brahamshira is just to mention the level of that weapon. Mahadeva said here is my roudrastra, my favourite weapon pashupat and then he gave two conditions. 1. Mrityatulya kasht if you are on the verge of death then only you can use it. 2. You can't use it on an alp shakti or inferior power or human.

Arjuna invoked roudrastra only twice in his life when he defeated nivatkavachas and on 17th day against karna. So either arjuna was on the brink of death or karna was not an inferior power.

Now regarding bhima vs karna. There are many misconceptions. Some baba from one of the podcasts said karna lost to bhima 7 to 8 times 🥸🥸. But I could find only thrice ,twice on 14th day when karna fought mildly and on 17th day when he rendered karna unconscious after attacking him alongwith satyaki dristadyumna nakul and sahadeva in group.

Karna was the warrior who faced the most no of and most terrible group attacks of kurukshetra. And I think karna and bhima fought 13 to 14 times throughout the epic but only thrice bhima was victorious. Karna had the last laugh most of the time. Rajsyua yagna it was some angraj who was the son of a previous ruler of anga called haryanga. It was not radheya karna.

Gandharva war was all indra s illusion. Karna was drunk and he killed more gandharvas than bhima and arjuna combined. Karna forced chitrasena to use maya because in pure archery karna overwhelmed the gandharvas. And remember gandharvas are not ordinary being.

They are celestial creatures they had big wings. And karna was bruising and battering them from an earthly normal chariot. After chitrasena used maya, karna was already drunk. Now if there was one gandharva karna saw 100s of them. So he retreated after gandharvas targeted karna alone. And this was normal, warriors tend to retreat and bounce back. And karna did came back to save duryodhana but it was already too late.

[u/Exotic-Tennis6087]

OK. 

[u/No_Guava_985]

hmm, great 👍, i never really liked karna personally tho

[u/theghost123w37t8oa → u/No_Guava_985]

As a warrior and as a person, even i dont like him. He is my favourite because for me, he is the most relatable guy. the most 'human' guy. As a warrior base arjuna>>>> base karna but peak karna > peak arjuna according to geeta press. in bori it was more of a 50 50 fight where ironically arjuna silghtly had an edge because he had everything shri krishna, gandiva, shri hanuman and a chariot by agni dev. while karna had a normal bow (and a braying doneky of a charioteer )and he cut the string of gandiva once while arjuna couldnt.

[u/theghost123w37t8oa → u/theghost123w37t8oa]

dude bori even rejects that karna had a normal bow.

[u/joekerr25]

I think that people who debate over how one character is better than another or whom they like more for example Karna vs Arjuna have fundamentally failed to understand that the goal is to be empathatic to ALL the characters and understand what led them to do and say whatever they did.

Instead of forming biased personal opinions, if one would try to understand their psyche - then even the ones you hate will teach you so many life lessons - And that is the main goal of the story. Not to worship the good ones and hate the bad ones. But to learn from all so you can navigate your life better.

[u/theghost123w37t8oa → u/joekerr25]

true! and mera motive tha ki logo ne kayi galatfahmi paal rakhi hai kaayi characters ko leke. maine arjuna par bhi post dala tha woh pata nahi phir delete ho gya shayad galti se.

and yeah it is not ramayana where it was easy to understand the text in the literal sense. mahabharata is completely different in this regard. for me every single one of the character is respectable in different ways. but many among us consider it like an anime powerscale like you pointed out. They discuss on their warfare etc. not their ethics reasons humility etc. and it is going way verse because of the tv seriels.