Karṇa, son of Kuntī by Sūrya, raised as a charioteer’s son and the lifelong rival of Arjuna. Allied to Duryodhana, he becomes the Kaurava commander after Droṇa and falls to Arjuna on the seventeenth day of Kurukṣetra. It is Yudhiṣṭhira’s frustration at Arjuna’s failure to kill him that provokes the crisis over Gāṇḍīva in the Karṇa-parvan.
