Posted:
Medha
The other thing about Karna being known - from my reading of both the Adi Parva & the Shanti Parva portions, it's clear that when Karna gatecrashed that event, Drona's students recognized him, but didn't know him. Duryodhan did not address him by name, but Arjun did.In school, I knew the names of several kids in other classes, but nothing more about them. That may well have been the case w/ Karna as well - Arjun may have known him by name, but just that, and nothing more. The claim that Duryodhan was friends w/ Karna in Drona's gurukul is unsupported even by Shanti Parva: Karna became Duryodhan's friend after that tournament, and following that, he became Parashurama's disciple for the same time that Arjun & Sahadev did advanced training w/ Drona, and Bhima did advanced training in mace fighting w/ Balarama. That would be the period b/w the defeat of Drupada and the house of lac.That is supported by Duryodhan addressing him as 'O mighty-armed warrior!', 'O polite one', 'O represser of enemies'... in the Adi parva account of their first encounter.
I have one very general comment to make here. It is not possible to analyze and scrutinize this epic in an attempt to arrive any logical conclusion. Reason? This is a poetic work and not a scientific research paper.
The fact that Duryodhana does not address him by name but Arjuna does, does not prove anything. Vyasa may have wanted to insert "karna" in Duryodhana' s speech but could not do so
The reason being, - Vyasa was writing in verse, not prose. And the rules of poetry in Sanskrit are pretty rigid. Depending on the kind of chandda being used, only a certain number and certain kind of syllables can be used. Though Vyasa has primarily only used Anushthup and trishtup chanda, it can get restricting. So duryodhana's "O mighty-armed warrior!', 'O polite one', 'O represser of enemies'... " may be nothing more than an attempt to fit into the chandda.
Those who have tried to write verse in Sanskit can appreciate this point best.
Another point- If we see the language used in those days, a direct address by name was considered impolite- unless it was by father / mother/ elder brother. A technique considered more refined was to address through some appellation like "O mighty-armed warrior!', 'O polite one', 'O represser of enemies'.
This is a very general guideline which may be kept in mind while quoting willy nilly from KMG and attempting a threadbare analysis.
