A story · Mahabharata — Stories

The Death of Karna

Mahabharata, Karna Parva 90

The story · English

Sanjaya described the scene to the king. The Kaurava army had retreated in fear, watching Arjuna's weapon swell with energy and blaze like lightning. Karna responded with showers of golden shafts, crushing Arjuna's weapon and piercing him with keen arrows. The battle between Arjuna and the son of Adhiratha became dreadful, like two fierce elephants striking one another with their tusks. They filled the sky with so many arrows that the sun became invisible and all points of the compass were shrouded in a dense, dark net of weaponry. Both men, accomplished in the art of war, displayed beautiful maneuvers. At times Karna prevailed, and at others, the diadem-decked Arjuna held the advantage, while the gods in the heavens cheered for both heroes.

As the earth groaned under the weight of chariots and elephants, a snake named Aswasena rose from the nether regions. He had long harbored hatred toward Arjuna for killing his mother during the conflagration at Khandava. Seeing the duel, Aswasena entered Karna's quiver in the form of an arrow, waiting for the moment to strike. The battle grew so intense that the two warriors became fatigued. Apsaras descended from the sky to fan them with palm leaves and sprinkle them with fragrant sandal-water, while Sakra and Surya gently brushed their faces. Karna, seeing he could not easily prevail over Arjuna, decided to use a special, snake-mouthed shaft he had long reserved for this moment, a weapon of blazing splendor kept in a golden quiver.

Karna aimed the snake-inspired arrow at Arjuna's head. The sky blazed and thunderbolts fell. Shalya, the ruler of the Madras, warned Karna that this arrow would not succeed and urged him to find another. Karna replied that he never aims an arrow twice, for he is not a crooked warrior. He released the shaft, shouting that Arjuna was slain. However, Krishna acted quickly. He pressed his foot down on Arjuna's chariot, sinking it a cubit into the earth. The white horses knelt as the car sank. Because Arjuna's height had dropped, the arrow did not strike his head. Instead, it tore the magnificent diadem from Arjuna's head, shattering the gold and gems into fragments and sending them falling to the earth.

Arjuna remained unmoved, binding his hair with a white cloth. The snake, having destroyed the crown, spoke to Karna, revealing that it had failed to kill Arjuna because Karna had shot it without looking at it first. The snake asked Karna to shoot it again so it could finish its revenge. Karna refused, stating that he would not rely on another's might to win and would not shoot the same shaft twice. He told the snake to be happy and go elsewhere. Enraged, the snake assumed the form of an arrow and advanced toward Arjuna on its own. Krishna warned Arjuna that the snake was the son of the mother he had killed at Khandava, and Arjuna responded by cutting the snake into six pieces.

After the snake fell, Krishna lifted Arjuna's chariot from the earth. Karna, glancing sideways, shot ten arrows at Krishna. Arjuna retaliated with a dozen arrows and a single, poisonous shaft that penetrated Karna's armor and drank his blood. Enraged, Karna shot ninety-nine arrows at Arjuna and twelve at Krishna. He laughed and roared, but Arjuna, knowing the vital points of the human body, pierced Karna with hundreds of arrows. He then fired ninety arrows resembling the rod of Death. Karna trembled like a mountain split by thunder. Arjuna then shot away Karna's gem-decked head-gear and earrings, and shattered his carefully forged armor into many fragments in a single moment, leaving Karna in great pain.

Arjuna continued to mangle Karna's vitals with keen shafts. Karna looked resplendent in a terrible way, covered in blood like a red mountain with crimson streams. Arjuna pierced his chest with iron arrows. Karna cast aside his bow and quiver, standing stupefied and reeling in anguish. Arjuna, following the duty of manliness, hesitated to slay a distressed enemy. Krishna intervened, telling Arjuna that the wise never spare their foes, however weak they may be. He urged Arjuna to crush Karna now, lest he recover and advance again. Arjuna worshipped Krishna and then covered Karna and his chariot in arrows, leaving Karna looking like a flowering tree because of the hundreds of shafts protruding from his body.

Karna fought back, piercing Arjuna with ten shafts and Krishna with six. Arjuna then prepared a mighty iron arrow inspired by a celestial weapon. At that moment, the hour of Karna's death arrived. Kala approached invisibly and reminded Karna of a Brahmana's curse. Suddenly, the earth began to devour the left wheel of Karna's chariot. Karna found that the high weapon he had learned from Rama no longer shone in his mind. He became filled with melancholy and railed against righteousness, arguing that while he had tried to practice it, righteousness was now destroying him instead of protecting him. He grew agitated as his driver and steeds were displaced and his vitals were struck.

Karna shot arrows at Krishna and Arjuna, and Arjuna responded with seventeen arrows of fierce impetuosity. Karna attempted to invoke the brahmastra, and Arjuna countered with the Aindra weapon. The two exchanged torrents of shafts. Karna managed to cut the string of Arjuna's bow eleven times in succession. He did not know that Arjuna had a hundred strings. Arjuna replaced the strings so quickly that it seemed wonderful, and he covered Karna in blazing arrows. Krishna told Arjuna to approach and strike with superior weapons. Arjuna, filled with fury, prepared a celestial weapon as hard as adamant, combining it with the Raudra weapon, just as the earth fully swallowed the wheel of Karna's car.

Karna alighted from his vehicle and tried to lift the wheel, pulling so hard that the earth rose four fingers' breadth. He begged Arjuna to wait until he extricated the wheel, reminding him that righteous warriors do not shoot those who are unarmed or in distress. Krishna answered by reminding Karna of his own cruelty. He listed how Karna had watched Draupadi be humiliated in the assembly, how he had encouraged the plot to kill the Pandavas in the house of lac, and how he had helped slay the boy Abhimanyu. Krishna told Karna that he could not invoke virtue now to escape death after spending his life ignoring it. Karna hung his head in shame.

Karna tried to fight again, but Arjuna, remembering the injustices Krishna mentioned, blazed with fury. Karna fired a final, powerful shaft that pierced Arjuna's chest, causing him to reel and drop his bow. As Karna struggled with his wheel once more, Arjuna recovered and took up the Anjalika weapon. He first shot away Karna's magnificent chariot standard. Finally, Arjuna fired the Anjalika arrow, which struck off Karna's head. The head fell like the setting sun. A light left Karna's body and entered the sun. The Pandavas and Krishna blew their conchs in victory, while the remaining Kauravas fled the field in terror, leaving the body of Karna bathed in blood.

कथा · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Duhsasana's Blood · Mahabharata, Karna Parva 83
• Next: The Fall of Duryodhana · Mahabharata, Shalya Parva 58
• All of Mahabharata — Stories · Ask Krishna about it

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