Hello everyone! This blog is a task assigned by Yesha Bhatt ma’am. It deals with the several assigned questions based on T.P Kailasam’s The Karna or Curse.
THE CURSE OR KARNA
T.P. Kailasam
Tyagraj Paramasiva Iyer Kailasam , his life span is 1884 to 1946. He was a playwright and prominent writer of Kannada literature. His contribution to Kannada theatrical comedy earned him the title Prahasana Prapitamaha, "the father of humorous plays" and later he was also called "Kannadakke Obbane Kailasam" meaning "One and Only Kailasam for Kannada".
The Curse or Karna
Karna, son of Surya and Kunti and the doyen of archers, endures a challenging journey on his way to becoming one of the greatest warriors of the Mahabharata. His Foster parents were Sootha Radha and Adirath. The story of Karna begins with the misfortune of his secret birth and unfolds itself amidst the unremitting gloom of injustice and insult. Karna was lodged in the section reserved for ordinary pupils and away from the section reserved for princes and other high caste students. The Curse or Karna is one of the best known works of Kailasam. This story is from Karna’s perspective. Here we get to see Karna as a hero of Mahabharat. He was the one who in spite of being of high class society had to face all the shame of being in lower caste. In every step of his life he has been cursed for being a Sootha. In ancient times society was divided into 4 categories based on their work (karma) but slowly with time it changed and everyone had to do work based on birth. In this case lower birth talent was never counted and was cursed. Same happened with Karna. In Mahabharat he is always shown as a supporting character. We never knew in detail about the pains of his life. T.P. Kailasam in this work has tried to bring Karna as a hero and brought to us pains of his life. The story of Karna is the intriguing story of a hero who despite being born to royalty was brought up lovingly by a lowly charioteer and his wife, his whole life was one great struggle against cruel destiny and all the odds placed in his way by the inequities of his time.
Recently on the Hindi television Sony channel began a television series named ‘Suryaputra Karna’. In that also Karna was the hero in the serial and his life and pains were shown. Here is a promo of the serial. The story revolves around the best archer of the Mahabharata, Karna and narrates the entire story of Mahabharat from Karna and Pandavas' birth to the eventual crowning of Karna in the Swarga. The show covers the life journey of Karna on his way to becoming a great warrior.
T.P. Kailasam’s play is divided into 5 Acts. act 1,3,5 contains two scenes. The play does not narrate the whole Mahabharat, it contains some important scenes like
- Raama’s (Parshuram) Ashram i.e. the scene of Karna’s last day of pupildom;
- Guru sleeping in Karna’s lap- Anon, mason wasp scene
- The Royal Stadium of Hastinapur- competition after competition of training between Pandavas and Kavravas
- Karna crowned as king of Angaraj
- Panchali, Draupadi Swayamvar
- Conversation between Draupadi and Karna
- Chirharan of Draupadi
- Battlefield in Kurukshetra
- Kunti revealing the truth
- Death of Karna
1) Interpret the 'end' of all Acts and scenes.
Act-1
Gurujee Raama
POOR KARNA! POOR, POOR KARNA!
Act- 2
Gandharaj
POOR ANGA! POOR POOR HONEST ANGA!
Act- 3
The King Suyodhan
The King POOR ANGA! OUR POOR GREAT ANGA !
Act- 4
Bheema
(Anga crumples into Bheema’s arms who carries him out muttering amid tears: POOR ANGA! POOR GREAT ANGA!” The THRONE ROOM, empty now, is exposed for a minute before—)
Act 5
Aswattha
“OUR ANGA!” “OUR GREAT ANGA!”
(“OUR POOR POOR ANGA”!
Karna can be considered the most sympathetic character of Mahabharat. The happenings of his life always make us feel he is a poor thing. With a birth he was discarded by his mother being an illegal child, brought up by foster parents- Sootha’s despite being a blood of royal family, always faced insult by gurus and society for having power/ abilities instead of being a Sootha. He was a sharp child but no one was ready to guide him. He lied and took his training under Parshuram but unfortunately truth spilled and he was cursed by his Guru. At the end of his life he came to know his reality. He was crowned as a king but with a motive of using him against Pandavas by Suyodhan/ Duryodhan.
All the act of this play ends with Karna/ Anga being Poor (બીચારો). Every character who has a conversation with him feels sympathetic to him and realizes that anything that happened in his life is not a result of his mistake. It was fate. As we say karma helps to gain good and bad here Karna’s life cannot be measured so. By birth he was left out; he didn't get a chance for karma too.
2) Is 'moral conflict' and 'Hamartia' there in Karna's character?
A moral conflict is a situation in which a person has two moral obligations, which cannot be met both at once. Karna's moral conflict happened when during the war days his real mother Kunti came to him and told him all the truth and counted him among the Pandavas. Kunti requested him to fight for the Pandavas' cause. Because Karna was as powerful as Pandavas and he possessed all the power possessed by Pandavas. In this situation, if we think of Karna we can realize his struggle. He came to know his truth and now one one hand he has his own blood siblings and is fighting against them being with cousins. On the other he has all the burden of Suyodhan’s favors and promise of Friendship. He gets a moral conflict about do he be on part of siblings to whom he shares similarities or be with one who helped him, did favors gave him a respected place in society.
Hamartia is a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero. A flaw of character himself. In Karna’s life his flaw is his lying to Parshuram for gaining knowledge. He already knew about him giving training only to brahmins yet he deceived him. He had a personal cause for his lying and later he was cursed by his Guru which always stopped him and made him lack in his abilities.
His another hamartia can be considered is about his loyalty, primarily to Duryodhana. Karna joined Duryodhana's side in the Kurukshetra war. He was a key warrior who aimed to kill the third Pandava Arjuna but died in a battle with him during the war. He is a tragic hero in the Mahabharata, in a manner similar to Aristotle's literary category of "flawed good man".
Aristotle has said that "the good of man is the activity of his soul in conformity with virtue, or if there are several virtues, then in conformity with the best and most complete."
3) Karna - The voice of Subaltern
The word subaltern was generally used in the British army who had lower rank, junior position. an officer in the British army below the rank of captain, especially a second lieutenant.
Later we see after various literature this word was used for one who is/ was deprived of some learning or facilities due to his birth, caste or creed. Who were considered to be in a lower position in society by the elite class. They even didn't have basic freedom like speaking, attaining knowledge and using the basic facilities. When Britishers colonized over the major world in the name of Civilizing the uncivilized, the colonized whose basic rights were taken are also called subaltern.
The term ‘Subaltern’ was coined by Ranjit Guha and later it was adopted by Marxist Antonio Gramsci and further it was discussed by Gayathri Chakravarty Spivak in her essay ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ People consider Subaltern as the unrepresented group of people in the society, people of inferior race, not fit for making any real contribution to the society and therefore they cannot speak, but in reality subaltern can speak but others do not have the patience to listen to them and same can be seen with Karna, he is capable but he ultimately he is Sootha Putra.
As we discussed above also, Karna, unknown to his reality lived his life being Sootha, he had all the power, courage, bravery of a kshatriya blood but unknown to it growing a Sootha Family made him Subaltern. He was not given education, and was deprived of all basic rights from childhood. Even in the Kurukshetra war he blindly had to follow Suyodhan as he was king. His point of view was not considered. He was devoted to Suyodhana because of his favors and promise of friendship. Even in the chirharan act of Draupadi he stood for truth, he tried to stop Suyodhana which shows his generosity and attitude of gentleman but his voice was subdued. Hence we can consider the voice of Karna to be the voice of Subaltern.
I hope my blog is useful. Thanks for visiting. Share your views in the comment box. Thank you.
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