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The Kurse or Karna
In this blog I am going to deal with the thinking activity task of The Curse or Karna assigned by Megha Mam. Department of English, MKBU.
Q.1) Karna : The Voice of Subalertern
The Subalertern Theory
Spivak refers to women, black people, colonised people, and the working class as "subaltern.Her use of the term "subaltern" was influenced by Italian academic Antonio Gramsci. Gramsci frequently alluded to a submissive position in aspects of class, gender, race, and culture. Spivak's article Can the Subaltern Speak? focuses on how the 'subaltern woman is portrayed as detached, dumb, or unheard. Her work is mostly concerned With women's "muteness" in postcolonial settings.
Karna : 'The voice of Subaltern'
The story of Karna begins with the misfortune of his secret birth and unfolds itself amidst the unremitting gloom of injustice and insult.
The intriguing story of a hero who despite being born to royalty was cast away by his mother brought up lovingly by a lowly charioteer and his wite, his whole life was one great struggle against cruel destiny and all the odds placed in his way by the inequities of his time.
On the psychological front, the stigma of his perceived lineage never left him. It required Adhiratha his father, to quote him the equally tragic story of Ekalavya to bring him out of depression into which Guru Dronacharya's rejection for his enrolment for higher studies had pushed him. His psyche again suffered a setback when he was debarred from the tournament on the basis of his lineage, despite being the best performer of the day.
Another big shock came his way in the Swayamvar of Draupadi. The biggest ambition of any warrior is to display his powers in battle. But cruel fate even denied him that privilege when he was forced to sit out of the Kurukshetra war for the first ten days. He might have looked normal from the outside but his inner personality was surely impacted by these and many other tragedies.
He was rejected and insulted by society at every step, he developed some flaws engendered by a defiant spirit and nurtured by association with the devil designs of Duryodhana. his benefactor prince. But those very things seem to enhance. and enliven the appeal of his character
At every stage in his life he had to endure immense hardships and yet, never did he deter from the path of righteousness. The various sacrifices he made were only one aspect of his towering, though complex personality. Sometimes it was hard to believe to what extent he could drive himself to adhere to his principles of not sending anybody back empty-handed from his presence.
His commitment to his principal's generosity was so strong that he knew that he was virtually giving away his own life to Indra in the shape of his armour and earrings despite having been warned beforehand by Surya-deva, his divine father. In another instance, he broke the sandalwood panels of his own palace for charity, when he could not otherwise procure the sandalwood demanded by an old Brahmin.
Before him, all of the Kaurava, as well as Pandava princes, including Arjuna, had pleaded helplessness in meeting the Brahmin's request. because of the non-availability of sandalwood in Hastinapura. The commitment to his principles was so deeply embedded in his psyche. that he could not breach the same even in the thick of battle and i his worst nightmares.
Q.2 ) Various themes of the Kurse or Karna.
Karma and reward
One of the interesting themes I found is karma and rewards Karna as we know that he has a sad story scene in his childhood. He is the son of Kunti and Surya and he lived with the Bramhin family. As a ‘ yoddha’ is greater than Arjun as well but he has tragedy in his life. So here we can not find justice. So What're karma he did, he rewarded just sadness and disappointment in life. Here I am mentioning some of the original lines.
“Forgive my sin, rever’d, loved Gurujee! For- give th’ unwitting sin of a child—a child that all these years hath found father, mother, brother, kith and kin in none but thee! Oh! Woe is me! “
“POOR KARNA! POOR, POOR KARNA!”
Theme of curse
As we see, the theme of curse can be seen in this work of T. P. Kailasam. Karna wanted to learn archery and other Vidhyas from Parshurama. But Parshurama can teach only brahmins. And in the end we see Karna get the curse by Parshurama because he lied about his true identity.
Theme of casteism
From ancient times this topic can be considered as the talk of the Town. Upper class only have the right to receive education, use of public places, respect etc, this all is for rich and upper class people. So we can see that in this work Karna took education by lying that he belongs to Kshatriya Kul. If he tells the truth to Parshurama, he won't be able to take education because at that time people were very casteist. Class did matter a lot to them (today also some people are casteist). So the theme of casteism is also a possible theme of "The Curse".
1. Caste Discrimination
This is practiced in India since ancient times & we see this when Guru Drona denied Karna and Eklavya to teach Dhanurvidya. Such discrimination is not good. All humans have the same blood and humanity is the highest religion. We should not encourage building such walls on caste basis or racism, rather we should try to get equal rights for all humans.
2. Guru Dakshina
Eklavya learned the art of archery by himself when Guru Drona refused to teach him. He observed Guru Drona secretly, made his idol and with all his devotion, he excelled in the archery skills. As he learned archery without the permission of Drona, so it was considered as an act of stealing knowledge. Hence Drona demanded Ekalavya of his thumb as Guru Dakshina. At this Eklavya willingly gave his thumb without any hesitation. Here we see the true devotion of Eklavya towards his Guru.
Casteism
We can find this theme in the play by T.P. Kailasam. This theme play vital role in the play. We find this theme in the scene where Karna goes to Drona to become his student to learn vidya from him. But because he wasn't kshatriya Drona rejects him to become his shishya. He denied to Karna. We can discover here casteism that Drona allows only selected cast which is kshatriya.
The Betrayal
The theme appears in the scene where Kunti betrays Karna. Karna was her elder son whom she receives by using the mantra given by Surya dev. She wasn't ready to become single mother or mother before marriage that's why she leaves Karna in river. So we see that the theme of betraying appears here.
1.Education system in India with reference to Past and Present time
In the society there is a cast system and class system. So who deserves something to get in a real sense that gain nothing but pain.Education is one of the field we can see this kind of partiality. Movie is one medium to show this we have many movies like Super 30,
" कोन तोडेगा ये परंपरा? द्रौणाचार्य तो हमेशा राजा के ही साथ थे और आगे भी रहेंगे।एकलव्य का अगुंठा कटवाते रहेंगे और अर्जुन को बडा योद्धा कहेलवाते रहेंगे ।"
In a past time who belongs to Brahmin or Kshatriya they can learn all kind of vidhya. Who are not belongs the upper class they have no right to learn. Other exam of we can say the 'Karna' another character from Mahabharata. Kai
lasam wrote upon him also.
Thank you and I hope it will be helpful to you!!!
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