Karn:The Night(CurrentlyEditing}

chapter-2

Chapter-2

Kurukshetra
Day 17

In very early hours, after the sunrise Trigartas and Samsaptakas engaged fight with Arjuna. Arjuna began to sweep the armies. Arjuna used his Nagastra. Then Partha slew them with his straight arrows. Indeed, all these warriors in that battle, aiming at whom Partha had invoked that foot-tying weapon, had their lower limbs encircled with snakes.

Then Susharma countered with his Sauparna astra. Thereupon numerous birds began to come down and devour those snakes. There was no man amongst them that could fight with Arjuna. Arjuna began to destroy all the troops. Beholding that slaughter, all of them remained perfectly inactive, without putting forth their prowess. Arjuna slew all Sampsaptakas and Trigartas. Arjun also killed King Susharma. Arjuna slayed more than 100,000 warriors.

When Arjuna was involved in fight with Samsaptakas, Karna defeated the Pandava brothers Nakula, Sahadeva and Yudhishthira in battle but spared their lives as per promise he made to Kunti. Karna along with his son Vrishasena began slaying armies of Pandavas. Arjuna came into the place where Karna and Vrishasena were creating havocs. Karna was earlier involved in the killing of an unarmed Abhimanyu on the thirteenth day of the battle. First, Karna broke Abhimanyu's bow from behind, since it was impossible to face an armed Abhimanyu and then finally stabbed Abhimanyu along with other warriors.

Remembering the injustified death of his son in which both Karna and Vrishasena had major role, Arjuna planned for revenge. Arjuna gave the challenge to Karna to save his son and attacked Vrishasena fiercely and fired four razor headed arrows, cutting off Vrishasena's bow, his two arms and then his head in front of Karna, who failed to protect his son.

Karna became inconsolable after seeing his son's fate. He engaged a long duel with Arjuna. The much anticipated battle between Arjuna and Karna took place fiercely. As the battle intensified, Arjuna pushed back Karna's chariot 10 steps backward every time by the energy of the arrows, but Karna failed to push Arjuna's chariot back. When questioned by Arjuna, Krishna said it is meant to be impossible for any human ever to push his chariot backwards because the chariot of Arjuna contains both Hanuman and Krishna, thus holding the entire weight of the universe.They are fighting like no end and now karna's curse came into effect and he got down to remove his chariot wheel from the ground.

The sun set so suddenly☀️. One moment, it was shining so bright, next moment it was dark.

Karna and Arjuna who were facing each other in battle seemed stunned by the unexpected end to their battle that day. Karna, standing on the ground near his mired wheel had seen his death when Arjuna nocked the arrow to the bow. He was stupefied by the sunset. He could not understand how it had happened. Drained as he was by all that happened that day and the battle that took everything out of him, his brain was sluggish and unable to think.

King Salya, standing next to Karna was equally stunned, but relieved as well. He had started the day off by denigrating karna’s skills, but that day had changed his opinions to a considerable extent. Karna was still a Suta, still arrogant and boastful and vain, but none of that mattered before his undoubted ability with the bow. Salya was forced to concede that karna actually did have some reason to be arrogant and vain. Not that he was going to tell him that, of course. He was too arrogant for his own good. Had he listened to Salya while deploying the Nagastra, this battle would have been over long back and karna would have been the victor too. Stiff-necked fool, thought Salya. But at least he had survived the day.

Arjuna lowered his bow with a frustrated growl. He had his arrow ready and nocked but the sun had ensured he could not release it. He wondered sourly how it happened that this braggart escaped every time. The way the sun set reminded him of the first time they ever met, in the arena at Hastinapura. Then also, the sunset had prevented their battle. It seemed the sun was partial to Karna.

Krishna picked up the reins. Apart from the faint smile on his face, there was no change of expression on his face. With a bow to the two standing on the ground, he flicked the reins, directing the horses away from the battlefield.

“Come, let’s get that wheel off the ground,” said Salya.

The wheel which had resisted their concerted efforts till then came free with just a gentle push.

Salya stared at the wheel in surprise. He shivered, a feeling of foreboding assailing him. He looked at Karna, the stories regarding the many curses on the man coming to his memory. He shivered again. He should have died today, thought he. Everything had pointed to it. The mired wheel, the sluggish thoughts from him, all the curses on him were coming true. And yet, Karna had survived.

“You should have listened to me,” said Salya, unable to repress himself. “You should have aimed the Nagastra at his heart.”

Karna smiled at Salya. “I am not going to let you provoke me again today. I aimed at the neck because there is no surer way of killing someone than severing their head. If Krishna hadn’t done what he did, Arjuna would have been dead.”

Salya wondered if he imagined the slight tremor in Karna’s voice as he spoke the last words.

“Krishna was unnecessarily harsh to you,” said he abruptly. It had bothered him, Krishna’s words to Vasusena. Why bring up everything in the past now? It was expected from Bheema perhaps, not from Krishna. And Krishna had actually prompted Arjuna to kill Vasusena while he was unarmed and standing on the ground. Salya was fast losing his illusions that his nephews were fighting this battle for Dharma.

Karna shrugged, but made no answer. It might have been due to the indifferent light, but it seemed to Salya that Karna’s face grew more haggard at the mention of Krishna’s name and his words.

“Come,” said Salya, mounting the chariot. “Let’s get back to camp before your friend comes looking for you.”

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