Karna's Wife (4 page)

‘I will, I shall,’ she said firmly. ‘Am I doing anything dishonourable, Father? I am in love with a good man, who is honest and brave. I want to marry him. I am asking for your permission and want your blessings to do so. What am I doing wrong? Am I not allowed to choose the person whom I love?’

‘But not the wrong man,’ he argued.

‘No, not the wrong man, the
wronged
man,’ she corrected him immediately. ‘A good man trapped in a bad situation.’

‘You seem to know all about him, but what do you actually know of him?’ countered the father. ‘Agreed, he may be a fine young man, but does it make the circumstances any better? Or do you see yourself as the great leveller who is performing the noble deed of uplifting him from his humble background?’ King Vahusha looked at her with a steadfast gaze. ‘Face reality, my child. Do you think you will upgrade his status by marrying him? No, you will only worsen yours. You know how it goes in our society. Anuloma or the practice of marrying men of a higher caste is legitimate. But you are well aware that the reverse practice of pratiloma, that of marrying a man of a lower caste, is prohibited by the shastras. Karna is a sutaputra—the son of a suta—one who is born of a brahmin woman and a kshatriya father. The sutas traditionally served the kings and functioned as their rathakaras, their charioteers. There have been suta advisors to the kings, suta confidants of the king, but none of them have been treated as friends of the king or their equals. They weren’t even provided with living quarters on the palace grounds. Not only did they endure such humiliation all their lives, so did their family and descendants. Have you ever heard of any suta being offered a brahmin or a kshatriya bride? That was the reason why the Princess of Panchala, Draupadi, rejected Karna at her swayamwara—for being a sutaputra, which makes him low in the social hierarchy. Duryodhana treats Karna as his closest friend—he has given him respect and identity, a royal recognition by crowning him a king. But has he offered him a kshatriya princess in marriage? He may be a good friend, but Karna can never be his kinsman. Please, child, don’t do this—it will be no life for a kshatriya princess. It’s a living death! Oh, Uruvi, forget him!’

He looked at his daughter’s rebellious face, knowing his words were falling on deaf ears, but continued to persuade her to see reason. ‘There are four examples of bad men these days, the dushta chathushtayam,’ he said. ‘One is Shakuni, Duryodhana’s maternal uncle. The second is Duryodhana himself. The third is the malicious Dushasana. And the fourth, sadly, is Karna.’

Uruvi winced, but her lips tightened in a stubborn line. Since her childhood days she had heard of the evil uncle, Shakuni, poisoning the ears of his nephews, Duryodhana and Dushasana, against their cousins, the Pandavas. Rumours were rife that the trio had poisoned young Bhima once and tried to drown him. He had been saved in the nick of time. The latest attempt on the lives of the Pandavas and their mother was when their palace at Varnavat was gutted by an unexpected fire, charring six of its residents in a grotesque death. The scheming uncle and his two nephews were suspected of this crime as well, for the palace was later found to be made of lac, an easily combustible material, and the actual plan was evidently to burn the five Pandavas along with their mother, Kunti. Fortunately, the Pandavas, suspecting their cousins of their evil design, had already got a tunnel constructed under the lac palace and escaped through it. They lived incognito as poor brahmins for several years, hiding from the spies of Shakuni and Duryodhana. It was during their fugitive days that Arjuna, dressed as a brahmin, had won over Draupadi as his bride at her swayamwara. Strengthened by the political power of the King of Panchala, the Pandavas had eventually disclosed their identity and returned to Hastinapur with their wife, Draupadi, who was wedded to all the brothers because their mother had so decreed. Forcing a truce between the cousins by a deceptively fair solution by the elders, Hastinapur was divided between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, who were given the arid part of Hastinapur. With great effort and fortitude, they managed to convert this barren land into a beautiful city, which they called Indraprastha. In all these vile intrigues against the Pandavas, Karna was rumoured to have assisted his close friend, Duryodhana. But Princess Uruvi could never believe this to be true.

Her father voiced the same nasty misgiving. ‘Out of his misguided attachment—his dhura-abhimanam—to Duryodhana, Karna too joined this triumvirate of evil,’ he said, the warning in his voice unmistakable. ‘Gratitude is a fine quality but in Karna, it is misplaced. By associating himself with evil, he will also get corrupted slowly but surely. All his good qualities will come to nothing. His great valour, his intelligence, his generosity, his fortitude, are tainted by this one single flaw—his blind support to the wicked. That is what I am trying to protect you from. Choose anyone but him, child.’

‘I can’t! What do I do?’ she pleaded as she looked helplessly at him. ‘I love him and I cannot bear to marry someone else! Could I, in all fairness, wed a man approved of by everyone when I am in love with another? No, Father, you have taught me to be honest and I am trying to be just that now. Or, the other way out is to call off the swayamwara and I shall never think of marriage ever. Father, I cannot marry a man without your consent, which means I need your heartfelt blessings too. I cannot have a swayamwara in which my father disapproves of the groom. Unless you say yes, I shall not go ahead. I wouldn’t risk a repetition of what happened to Karna at Draupadi’s swayamwara. He was publicly jeered at as a sutaputra, not just by the bride herself but the attending guests as well. If Karna is invited to my swayamvara, can you assure me that he will be received with dignity?’

‘You know my answer,’ he said evenly. ‘You are not leaving me with much choice, are you?’ he gave his daughter a quizzical look, knowing that she had ensnared him in a no-win crisis. ‘If I say no, you are the long-suffering spinster—and that’s not an option. And if I say yes, you will be going into a life of misery and humiliation. Can I give blessings to either option?’

‘Yes, Father,’ she looked up squarely at the tall, dejected figure standing by her side. ‘You brought me up to be what I am today; to make me capable, to look after myself and be wise enough to distinguish between the good and the bad. You were the one who encouraged me to make my own decisions and to stick to them and be brave enough to accept my problem. You told me to look into the mirror each morning and be proud of myself, to do nothing that I would be ashamed of. I am not ashamed to have fallen in love with Karna. And if it’s going to be a mistake, I think I have enough courage in me to tackle the worst moments as and when I come across them one day,’ she said quietly. ‘Father, you taught me to honour and love the brave and good and I want to marry such a man. I want you to approve of him because I know I can never be happy knowing that I have hurt you. One cannot be happy at the expense of others’ unhappiness, especially if they are those you love dearly. Father, I want your approval and your blessings and I want you to honour Karna as you would any good human being.’

King Vahusha saw that he was losing the battle with his daughter. Yet he persisted. ‘Karna is gifted, generous and righteous and the bravest of all warriors, but his loyalty to Duryodhana will bring about his downfall,’ warned King Vahusha, the king in him dominating his paternal instinct for once. ‘Karna may have all the sterling qualities a woman searches for, but they are nullified by the fact that he prefers to befriend evil. No one in the royal palace of Hastinapur has a good opinion of Karna. Duryodhana’s mother, Queen Gandhari, resents her son’s friendship with a lowly charioteer’s son. Bhishma Pitamaha does not approve of Karna because of his arrogance. Nor does Dronacharya, who believes he is an upstart. For them, Karna is the bad influence on Duryodhana. What is Duryodhana without Karna? The Kaurava prince is simply riding on the ability and achievements of Karna. Duryodhana knows he cannot win any battle without Karna—if Duryodhana did not have Karna by his side, he would be too weak to face the Pandavas. You’ll be alienating all these people whom you love and who love you dearly. You will be caught in a vortex and no one will be able to save you. Child, the Hastinapur court is a cesspool of deceit and intrigue. And by marrying Karna, you shall become a pawn in it as well. Forget him. There’s a wonderful world awaiting you without him…’

‘I will give myself to him,’ she spoke with such simplicity, so much earnestness, that her self-surrender was touching, leaving her father overwhelmed. Eventually, he had to bow to her wishes.

Uruvi unhesitatingly turned away from the world her parents wished her to live in. When her mother got to know of her decision, she tried desperately to change her daughter’s mind. She even resorted to locking Uruvi in her room and refused to talk to her disobedient daughter till she saw sense and listened to her parents’ counsel. Days turned into weeks, and the doors of Uruvi’s room remained as firmly locked as her resolution to marry Karna. Uruvi defiantly repeated that she loved Karna, even though he probably did not even know of her existence. This riled her mother even more. But she could not sway the princess, determined as she was to marry only the King of Anga at her swayamwara. The queen was too scared to call a family council, lest her daughter’s adamant stand lead to a scandal. Even her closest friend, Kunti, was kept away from this family secret.

‘How do we make her see reason?’ Queen Shubra cried to her husband in exasperated fury. ‘She is infatuated with him and what is the basis of her feelings? Only hearsay. She has not even met him to know what kind of person he really is! We have to free her from him by breaking the spell she is under. We have to pull her away from him.’

‘We can’t,’ King Vahusha said, shrugging resignedly. ‘We can’t stop her thinking about him. We can’t stop her from loving him. We can’t do anything! She knows what she wants—and she knows exactly how to face the storm she has dared to churn up.’

‘But she has to behave according to her status,’ answered Queen Shubra heatedly. ‘She has to realize her responsibility as a daughter and save herself from disgrace!’ she wept bitterly.

‘Speak as a mother, Queen Shubra,’ the king placed his hands on his wife’s shoulders. ‘Is it easier to live an honourable life by murdering your daughter’s happiness in the name of “honour” and family pride? Or is it easier to accept your child’s decision, even if it’s contrary to your wishes? Let’s stop being so slavish to customs and think this over. It would be braver of us to live as the in-laws of the “dishonourable” Karna than be the honourable parents of an unwed daughter whose life has been forever blighted.’

The distraught mother tightened her lips, a gnawing ache choking her angry retort. Queen Shubra decided she needed to talk to her daughter again.

This time she entered her daughter’s room with less antagonism, and she said more gently, ‘I am so bewildered, I really don’t know what to say,’ Queen Shubra started, her voice inflected with a genuine distress. ‘I came here again because I think your decision is drastically wrong. I wanted you to marry Arjuna as he is the best man any woman can have. Furthermore, I was comforted with the thought that you will be with Kunti. She’s always been like a mother to you. Everything was so perfect and you couldn’t have had it better, my child. I admit I am disappointed. I hoped you would do great things…’

‘By marrying Arjuna, you mean,’ Uruvi lashed out, still clearly resentful. ‘Mother, I do not love him and I will not marry him just because you and everybody else find it so appropriate!’

‘It is for your own good,’ her mother’s passionate plea acquired an imploring tone. ‘I can’t watch you wasting your beauty, youth, talent and opportunities in this lamentable manner. Being Karna’s wife won’t be easy. He is not like us. He is not one of us. He is an outsider.’

‘Don’t be sad for me, Mother,’ said Uruvi. ‘I haven’t failed, I have succeeded. You cannot imagine how I am looking forward to my new life. I shall live in the home of the man I love, looking after him and his family. There will be enough strength in me to be his wife and I shall be proud of that. I shall have him, I shall have his children. I shall have my work, my painting and my other pursuits. I shall live my life simply. When I am an old woman, I shall look back on a happy, peaceful life which I dared to choose and live the way I wanted to. What will I gain if I marry a man I don’t love and lose my soul? With Karna, I will gain my life, my soul. I love him. I love him for what he is. I love him for what he will be.’

Further words were futile, Queen Shubra conceded. There had been far too much disagreement with her daughter and she didn’t want to lose her forever. At last, her wounded silence and the father’s gracious acceptance of his daughter’s decision made way for Princess Uruvi’s swayamwara to be held on the fifth auspicious day of marghashirsha that year. An invitation was sent to the King of Anga, just as it was sent to many others.

The King of Anga received the invitation with surprise. He was not the least impressed, either with the elaborate gold-embossed, graciously worded invitation to the swayamwara of Princess Uruvi of Pukeya. She did not interest him; she intrigued him. He was curious to meet the beautiful princess who, as everyone knew, would choose his arch-rival Arjuna at her swayamwara. Just like Draupadi once had.