Mritunjay - An Ode to the Son of Sun

To

Mr. Shivaji Sawant

Author - Mrutunjay (Marathi)



Subject - Belated felicitations for creating pure magic on paper


Dear Sir,


Please accept my meager and insufficient admiration for bringing alive Karna, and giving him the apt title of 'The Death Conqueror'.


Take a bow, Sir!


Yours sincerely,

A completely bowled over reader


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If Mahabharata is a deep, deep ocean then Karna is a boat caught in a tempest, riding its waves. Or perhaps a golden whale caught in a giant web of fate, fighting all his life to break free and show the world its beauty.

The Daanveer Karna, The Warrior Karna, The Kavach-kundaldhari Karna, and yet, the ultimate Underdog Karna, the Ill-fated Karna, the Black-speckled Ray of Sun Karna...


It is this mystery of Karna that Mr. Sawant presents us with, in the form of first person narratives of Karna himself and those of his mother Kunti, his best friend Duryodhan, his wife Vrishali, his brother Shona, and finally of Sri Krishna himself.


The reader finds himself presented with a rare treat - that of a beautiful plot, equally well presented. Even though the plot is necessarily recumbent on the epic tale Mahabharata, Mr. Sawant deserves due credit for giving a larger dimension to the characters of Shona and Vrishali. Also for giving a mystic touch to the vibrations emanating from Sri Krishna towards our protagonist.
As to the beautiful presentation, the reader is sure to be bowled over by the imaginatively thought of metaphoric situations sprinkled generously through the pages. For example, Kunti is depicted as riding a five-horse chariot although the chariot has an empty position for a sixth horse - her reticence in leaving that position empty signifying her yen for her eldest-born. Or Karna being told about the cuckoo that lays her eggs in a crow's nest and his secondary reasoning that what mattered was the cuckoo's melody, not its place of rearing!


The tale begins with the soliloquy of a dead Karna, who deems it necessary to come back to life for the express purpose of telling us his saga - a saga of pathos, of self-doubt, of jealousy, of guilt, of innocence, of joy, of bravery, of perseverance, of sincerity, of truth and honesty, of an all-consuming charity - but above all the saga of a Winner who finally even conquers Death.


Mr. Sawant adroitly guides us through the confusing maze of the life of this hero...

Through the innocent childhood of the little Karna playing along the banks of Ganga with his beloved brother Shona and living in the simple hut of his loving foster parents.

To his adolescence, where he earns friends like Ashwatthama and Duryodhan as well as inexplicable and unintended contenders like Arjun and Bheem...

To his youth where he highlights his valour before the Kuru clan and becomes Angraj Karna and where he falls for the pretty, innocent Vrishali.

To his middle age where he suffers the loss of his first-born and his worst public insult at the hands of a woman.

To his advanced years, where he gives the biggest and noblest of 'daans' that no other character in Mahabharata had ever given and becomes Vakarnasen.

To that churning moment of his life, when he gets the answer to the most poignant and disturbing queries of his life - Who was he? Why had he those inexplicable kundals and that kavach? Why was he ever-fascinated by the Sun, the God of light who had sired and inspired him all along?

To the moment when he finally encounters his biological mother for the first time - here too, this hero amongst heroes forgives the one woman responsible for his tumultuous life and gives her the promise of not harming four of her legitimate sons.

And finally, to the end of his life, when the clouds of Indra's son Arjun finally shield the rays of the son of Sun that is portrayed in a manner most heart-wrenching.

What is admirable is the restraint that Mr. Sawant shows in portraying his Karna. Boldly, he makes no effort to over-glorify his idol. Boldly, he makes no effort to hide the blemishes on his golden character - in fact, he goes one step ahead and explains with a gifted eloquence the dilemma of a noble hero caught in a web of ignobility.


A few readers would perhaps crib about the liberties that Mr. Sawant has taken with the facts as stated in Vyasji's Mahabharata. But, I personally feel it is undue and unfair on their part! The conversion of the Kurus to Suryavanshis from Chandravanshis accentuates Karna's attachment to the Kuru flag, while Ashwatthama as the comrade of Karna and Duryodhan becomes a mouthpiece of Mr. Sawant to voice some of his most philosophical and at times utterly churning and enchanting thoughts.

Hollywood may have recently discovered its trend of finding the human side of the superheroes, but for Shivaji Sawant, its trodden territory. His Karna is the most human superman with whom everyone will identify. Easily.