It is a matter of conjecture as to what would have happened, if Drona had allowed Karna to compete with Arjuna. If he was denied by Drona during the archery competition at the beginning, then the curses that are heaped on him at the later stage also play a part in ensuring that he remains a tragic hero. But sadly he was never given the oppurtunity of a level playing field to prove it. For all his poweress, Karna comes across as internally turmoiled, insecure man, insecure due to his origins about his place in society and obsessed about being recognized as the best archer of all. Though the book is a sort of paean to Karna, it never goes overboard with it and tries to show his flaws as well. The monologues of Karna are the best of the lot. The novel is split into 9 books, each of then narrated as a monologue by Karna and other characters like Kunti, Krishna, (each of the 3 have 2 books of monologue), Duryodhana, Vrishali (Karna's wife) and Shom (Karna's step-brother). This work reputed to be among the best of contemporary Marathi literature, has an interesting narrative technique. Written originally in Marathi, the English translation of the novel is from the Hindi version of the original. 'Mrityunjay ' written by Shivaji Samant is the re-relling of Karna's story. If one took a poll on the popularity of the various characters of the Mahabharata, Karna would rank amongst the top. His is the legend of a tragic hero.
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