Karna's Wife (38 page)

‘Yes, and there is only one person who has the right to reveal this truth. It is Kunti. It is her secret. And only she can disclose it. Not you, Uruvi. Nor me. Nor Krishna.’

Uruvi burst out, ‘But she doesn’t have the courage to tell the truth! She is more concerned about protecting her own image than the life of her eldest, unwanted son!’

‘Uruvi!’ Bhishma Pitamaha looked at her sternly, shaking his head at her effrontery.

‘Don’t be shocked by what I said—but
you
should have convinced her to do so!’ she said bitterly. ‘I cannot speak to her about this—I would grovel at her feet to beg for my husband’s life, but Karna has forbidden me to and I am bound by my promise not to. And yet, I would break it if I were sure that she would agree to tell the world her terrible secret. Sadly, I know that she would never! Never!’

‘Karna made you promise for he did not want you to take any futile step. That was his way of telling you to accept reality, because he can forsee his death,’ the patriarch answered bleakly. ‘Karna doesn’t want anyone to know the reality of his birth, especially Duryodhana and Yudhisthira, simply because it is too late now…’

Too late now! The finality of those words were to ring through the coming, horrifying days but Uruvi could not bring herself to stop hoping…

As Uruvi’s love for her foster mother turned to hate, she wondered how her feelings could have changed so quickly. She recalled each moment she had spent with Kunti and wondered how the same woman who had loved her so tenderly could have deserted her own child. Kunti had always shown an enormous strength of mind and singleness of purpose—but both qualities appalled Uruvi now. It was not just anger that she felt, nor only horror and dismay, but sheer amazement. She could not believe that the soft-spoken, kindly woman she had grown up with could have been such a hard-hearted, unfeeling mother.

She now understood the meaning of Kunti’s brilliant smile when she told her she wanted to marry Karna, why Kunti had cajoled her to return to Karna and why she had defended Karna when he had the audacity to call her daughter-in-law a whore. She even saw Kunti’s affection for Vrishakethu as her way of loving her own son.

Seized with fury each time she thought of Kunti, she wanted to rush to ask her savagely for an explanation she owed so many people, most of all, her unwanted son. But more than a mere explanation, Uruvi wanted to plead with Kunti to announce the truth of Karna’s birth to the Pandavas and save thousands of people from impending death. Kunti was her last route to rescue Karna from his doom—but she knew she had to keep her promise to Karna never to talk to Kunti about him.

Another shock awaited her. One evening, she was surprised to see a visitor at the camp where she tended to the sick and injured. The woman was sheathed in white silk, her head covered with the pallu of her sari. Was she a patient?

‘What can I do for you? Are you unwell?’ she asked hesitantly.

The figure remained silent, pulling the veil closer over her head. Clearly, she was trying to hide her identity.

‘We can go inside,’ she suggested, hoping the woman would speak.

Once inside the confines of a tent, the woman quietly removed her veil to reveal a face Uruvi had recently come to distrust. It was Kunti.

The old queen was, as always, calm and self-assured. Her face wore her usual serene composure and her pale grey eyes were unflustered. There was no sign of guilt or repentance on her face. She said sadly, ‘You don’t come to meet me any more! I haven’t seen Vrishakethu for days…’

Her equanimity incensed Uruvi, who replied coldly, ‘I am sure you have not come here to tell me this. You could have always sent me a message through your servants. So what is it you want to see me about?’ Uruvi asked edgily, her eyes hard and steady. Kunti looked puzzled at the unfriendliness in her eyes and the ice in her voice, but she took a deep breath as if trying to gather courage.

‘I met Karna today,’ said the Pandavas’ mother.

Uruvi was startled, a small knot of apprehension tightening in her heart. ‘And what did you want from him?’ Uruvi questioned through stiff lips, recalling, with great difficulty, Karna’s promise that she was not to broach the topic of his birth to Kunti.

‘I went to Karna to tell him the secret of his birth,’ Kunti answered after an anguished pause.

For all her fury, Uruvi was not prepared for this disclosure. She broke into a cold sweat, her coiled anger snaking out stealthily.

‘And what did you tell him?’ she heard herself say. Her voice was as hard as her eyes.

Kunti was silent for a minute or two. ‘I went to him because only he can stop the war from breaking out,’ the Kuru queen said.

‘Pray, how is that?’

‘Because Karna is the real strength of Duryodhana. And Karna is the only person who Duryodhana will ever listen to,’ she said. ‘This war has to be stopped and only Karna can do that! Fraught with worry and overcome with anxiety, I finally decided to meet him in private. I had to talk to him! I met him as soon as he finished his noon prayers to the sun.’

‘So, you had obviously gone at the right time when he grants any request that is asked of him,’ Uruvi said sardonically. ‘Karna is famous for his generosity. A few days back, Lord Indra, disguised as a brahmin, asked him for his kavach and kundals, and my husband, in spite of seeing through the masquerade, granted him his wish ever so willingly. What did you ask for? He must have readily agreed to give it…as he always does.’

Her sarcasm went unnoticed; the older queen was too perturbed. She continued, ‘I said to him, “I am your mother. You are my first-born child,”’ Kunti paused, hoping to get a response from the younger woman. But Uruvi stood still like a statue. ‘I told him that the five Pandavas were his brothers but they were born much later.’

Uruvi kept quiet, trying to contain her anger. This woman was now disclosing the truth she had hidden from the world and her son for only one reason—to save her other five sons. She did not want war as she was afraid Karna would vanquish and even kill them. Yet, she would not reveal to the world that Karna was her first-born child—merely to preserve her own reputation. She would rather watch her son battle it out with the Pandavas, a mother so selfish that she had let her son suffer ignominy rather than tarnish her image as the noble queen of King Pandu.

Uruvi had never felt disgust as pure and undiluted as she did now. She looked at the woman intently, a strange gleam in her eyes.

Kunti said, ‘I was afraid of his reaction, but Karna looked so happy to see me. He bowed before me and said, “I have waited for so long for this moment. What is it that you wish from me? Your wish is my command.”’

‘And?’ Uruvi could not stop herself, her eyes glistening with an emotion Kunti could not decipher.

‘I begged him to make peace with his brothers and rule the kingdom instead. I told him that as the eldest brother he will be crowned the King of Hastinapur.’

Uruvi was stunned, loathing each word the older lady was saying.

‘But Karna did not agree!’ Kunti cried. ‘I had not expected him to refuse!’ she said agitatedly. ‘I pleaded with him. I begged him. I told him that as an unwed mother I could never claim him as my son. But if only he could give me one chance to redeem that wrong, I would be relieved of the guilt which has torn me all these years. All he did was look at me with his sad eyes and said, “I have always hated that mother who left me. Now I am filled with only love and compassion, but even that cannot allow me to grant you your wish. I cannot make peace with your sons. Their enemy is my closest, dearest friend whom I cannot betray. I love him too much. I would die for him rather than be a traitor.’”

Uruvi stood still, as if frozen, allowing the queen mother to do all the talking. She neither wanted to interrupt her nor prompt her to go on lest her simmering rage burst out as hot as lava.

Uruvi had never seen her foster mother so distressed, allowing her calm composure to crack. The old lady was moved by an extraordinary emotion and tears ran down her raddled cheeks. ‘Here I was, standing before my son and imploring him to come back to me. I wanted my son back and I was desperate with anxiety that this war would mean the loss of my sons. My only hope was Karna, who has the power to stop this war. I entreated him over and over again, and with folded hands I asked for his forgiveness. I promised him that he could have whatever he had been deprived of—his name, his right place in the family, the kingdom, and even Draupadi as his queen! Uruvi, please don’t get angry, but I was ready to do anything at that moment…I just wanted him to stop the war!’

Uruvi flinched, but pressed her lips tight, restraining herself from saying a word.

‘I know you will hate what I did, but I had to!’ the old queen was pleading with her too. ‘I had to convince Karna in some way, in any way! But even while hearing my frantic words, he seemed determined. He calmly declined again, so I paused awhile, thinking of an alternative. Then I asked him to give me two promises instead—I asked him not to kill Arjuna in battle and not to use any divine arrow or weapon more than once. Karna replied, “I shall spare all your sons, except Arjuna. I have sworn to kill him, and either I shall get him first or he will slay me. Either way, you shall still be the mother of five sons.” Saying that, he touched my feet and left.’

There was a long silence between the two women; a silence filled with shattered hopes and intense emotion. Uruvi broke the silence. ‘So why have you come to me now? Why are you telling me this?’ she asked, her voice dangerously soft. ‘If you think what you said has come as a nasty shock, it has not. I know about it. So does Karna.’

Uruvi heard the Pandava mother gasp sharply. ‘Krishna had already informed Karna, and like you, asked him to switch sides,’ Uruvi interposed quietly, her voice toneless.

She saw that Kunti wore an expression of complete surprise.

‘But you went one step further!’ Uruvi said icily. ‘In other words, you asked Karna to follow a course of action that spells certain death for him. And Karna must have promised this too, knowing that fulfilling your wishes was self-destructive. By not killing Arjuna, he will be killed. And that is what you wish for—that he should die rather than your precious Arjuna!’ she said viciously.

Kunti recoiled, looking as if Uruvi had struck her.

‘And by asking Karna not to use a divine weapon twice ensures that you cripple him completely!’ she added. ‘You went to Karna to stop the war, but ironically, there is only one person who can avert it now—and that’s you!’ Uruvi jabbed a finger at her, pointing at her accusingly.

‘If you reveal your secret to the Pandavas and everyone else, that Karna is your elder son, this conflict will stop. You have the power to end it, but you won’t. You would rather cherish your wretched image and your five Pandavas! When I got to know that you were his mother, I wanted to rush to you and beg you to proclaim his true identity and stop the war, to spare his life. You have the power to do that. And I was ready to beg you. But you asked your son for his own death! You are ready to sacrifice your oldest son but you will not unseal your lips!’

Uruvi could not rein in her loathing. ‘You got what you wanted!’ she spat out venomously. ‘You know he will not kill Arjuna, or any of your sons. You have it all. You are the winner who gave away nothing but got everything. You robbed him of his last weapon, of the right over his own life. And yet you want more. After taking everything from us, why have you come to me?’ she cried in utter despair.

‘To beg you to make him see reason…’ Kunti implored. ‘I don’t want to lose him, Uruvi. He is my son too.’

Uruvi gave a short, jeering laugh. ‘He was always your biological son, but was never really yours for you to “lose” him. So why now, dear mother?’ her voice dripped venom. ‘You came to him not to get your lost son back; you went to him to strip him of his last defence. By telling him the truth about his birth, you have effectively broken him from within. You know the intense rivalry between the two—and you were frightened of it—scared that Karna might kill Arjuna in battle! And that’s why you hurried over to Karna to tell him your sob story. You went there to save Arjuna’s life. Not Karna’s. Because now, after what you have revealed to him, Karna will not be able to point a single arrow at any of your sons as they are his own brothers.’

Kunti felt as if she was facing a stranger, a fierce adversary who was going all out to attack her.

‘Your intention was very clear. Duryodhana is your sons’ enemy and, somehow, he had to be deprived of his trump card—Karna, his staunchest ally,’ Uruvi uttered with reinforced fury. ‘By revealing the truth to him at that exact hour, you saw to it that Karna was weakened irreparably. He is no longer a force to reckon with as you have extracted unfair promises from him. He will not kill Arjuna or your other sons. If you so desperately wanted peace, why haven’t you told your sons the same story? Have you told them that Karna is their older brother? You know well enough that if Arjuna or any of the Pandavas ever discover the true identity of Karna, they would not direct a single arrow against him. You wouldn’t dare to tell them, just like you have not had the decency to say so for so many years!’