5 Things most people do not know about Karan

1. Karan was the most attractive personality of Mahabharata but surprisingly, in his previous life, he was a demon named ‘Dambhodbhava’ or Sahastra-Kavach who got a boon from sun god to be protected by a thousand armour ‘Kavach’ and which could only be broken by someone who had performed a penance of a thousand years and whoever would break the armour would die immediately. He was killed by Nar and Narayan(Vishnu) 999 times and finally, after he took refuge with Surya, the sun-god, to be reborn as Karan.

2. Karan was originally named Vasusena by his foster parents but because his foster mother’s name was Radha, he was popularly called Radhey, as well.

3. Karan had Bhargavastra which nobody else possessed. The Bhargavastra, Vijaya and his Kavach along with Kundal made Karan one of the most powerful warriors in the Universe. He used Vijaya only once in Kurukshetra war. He was acknowledged as Duryodhan’s finest warrior.

4. His curse by his guru Parasuram on his last day at Gurukul was the result of his love for his guru. Parasuram had sworn only to teach Brahmins and not any Kshatriya but since Karan was not getting any guru to teach him he went to Parasuram and lied about his caste. On the fateful day, Parasuram fell asleep with his head on Karan’s lap and an insect bit Karan on his shin, when his guru was in deep sleep. Not wanting to disturb his guru’s rest, Karan went through the pain and the blood kept oozing out. When the blood had wet the garment enough for Parasuram to feel the wetness, he woke up to find what had happened. Instantly, Parasuram knew that a Brahmin child could never bear pain of such intensity, and he shunned away Karan for his own oath of not teaching any Kshatriya was broken because of Karan. And he cursed him that although he had cheated to learn the warfare but when he would most need it, he would forget everything.

5. Karan lost his first son Sudaman, who was 16 years old, in Draupadi’s Swayamvar. He lost his foster brother Shon in Virat war. Both were killed by Arjun.