Movies : A Knight’s Tale : A Duryodhana – Karna Story with a pleasant difference

This is the Heath Ledger ” A Knight’s tale ” that I am talking about.

A peasant William (Heath Ledger) disguises as a knight to participate and win tournaments, honour and glory.  Like our Karna.

(Of course our Karna turns out to be the son of Surya, which gives him a noble birth, but that does not happen in this movie.)

A noble who is about as good at him at fighting, like our Arjuna अर्जुन, (but rather black hearted unlike this best devotee of Krishna and first recipient of Bhagavad Gita) , finally attacks the fact of his peasant birth, since he cannot win him in battle. This turns the crowd against William.

Prince Edward, like our Duryodhana, knights him and enables him to fight.

(In our own contemporary political hindi movie “Rajneeti”, duryodhana (Manoj Bajpai’s character) helps Ajay Devagan (Karna’s character) only with a view to manipulate mass vote.)

However, Prince Edward knights William the Peasant, out of motives of justice and goodness and gives him the right to fight in tournaments.  Demonstrating to me what is the hallmark of true nobility. He says that William is descended from an ancient royal line. After seeing this movie, I think that Duryodhana, could have crowned Karna as the king of Anga with true respect and sense of justice. It also helped that Karna’s foster father Adhiratha was actually in the line to the throne of Anga as the Srimad Bhagawatham tells us.

(After seeing the present versions of Duryodhana and Dharmaraja in Indian poltics, it is hard to ascribe good motives to Duryodhana, but the fact remains that the original Duryodhana is Respected in Uttaranchal and there are temples to him there.)

There is no doubt that Duryodhana resented the Pandavas, but my grandfather told me that otherwise he was a good king, generous and kind to his people.

B.R. Chopra interprets Duryodhana’s generosity as populist and not genuine. Like that of modern politicians. But people were not so deceitful in the Dwapara Yuga. Dharma still walked on two padas (feet) then!

Perhaps I have a great need to see goodness in people. Perhaps I don’t like watching news and reality shows because they focus on the meanness and misery of people when people are mean to them. Perhaps, just like Price Edward in this movie, Duryodhana was compassionate to Karna’s situation, and was in a position to return to Karna’s family a kingdom previously dominated by Hastinapur. May be he was, as a crown prince, doing justice. He was not a politician, he was after all a king?

I think as the custodians of the story moved from Saraswathi River to Ganga, blacker motives may have been ascribed to Duryodhana than Vyasa’s original depiction of his own grandson.

Authorship and Copyright Notice : All Rights Reserved : Satya Sarada Kandula

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The sons of Surya (Karna, Sugriva, Vaiwaswatha Manu, Aswini Twins, Sani, Yama)

When you say the son of Surya Deva (the sun), most people think of the tragic hero Karna.

When there was a conflict between Indra‘s son Arjuna and Surya’ s son Karna, Surya merely warned Karna in a dream about Indra’s plot, whereas Indra in the guise of a Brahmin, actively took away Karna’s Kavacha-Kundalas – Surya’s protective gift at birth. So on the one hand people blame Indra for interfering and on the other Surya for not doing enough!

When there was a conflict between Indra’s son Vali and Surya’s son Sugriva, neither of them stepped in to help and in that round it was Surya’s son who won. Sugriva was an exceptional warrior and  friend of Rama, while Arjuna was Krishna‘s friend.

It was Vishnu as the friend who once granted victory to Indra’s son, Arjuna as Krishna and once granted victory to Surya’s son, Sugreeva as Rama.

Friends matter more than fathers some times!

And father who grants you good looks and intelligence and does not support you through conflicts reminds me of our father Surya. He has given us life and and daily energy and expects us to take care of ourselves!

Vaiwaswatha Manu, the Dravidian king and ancestor of Rama and Krishna, was the son of Vivaswan, which is another name for Surya! Vaiwaswatha Manu was also known as Satyavrata manu. Incidentally, it was Vishnu as the Matsya Avataram who saved Vaiwaswatha Manu.

The Aswini (Ashwini) Twins are sons of Surya, who only got devata status thanks Chyavana, son of Bhrgu (Bhrigu, Bhrugu). They were initially kept out on the grounds that could not be Devas.

s’ani (Saturn) is a son of Surya. He represents Karmic influences in Astrology. And many people worship Surya when they want relief from the periods of Sani in their life. While some traditions hold that Sani’s mother was Chaaya, the shadow of Surya’s wife Sandhya (dawn), one hindi tv serial holds that it is Sandhya who is the mother. Sani periods are pay up time and most people want to have as little to do with this lord of Karma as possible.

Yama is the best son of Surya as far as I know. He is The Lord of Dharma. Yama in yoga is the first step of self-control. The Yamaha you drive around is named after him. Yama is worshipped in China, Japan and Kerala and has strong connections to the South of India. Mudrarakshasa has an episode, where in a person goes around with a picture of Yama telling people of his greatness. (mahima). This custom is followed for Sani in the south.

Much of the Dharma we have today has roots in Yama’s Dharma Sastras. Bhishma quotes Yama. There are Rg Veda Mantras in which Yama tells his sister Yami why a brother may not marry a sister. (By the way, Yama is against dowry system.)

Much of the Dharma we have today has roots in Yama’s Dharma Sastras.

Telugu movies generally make light fun of Yama as in the movies Devanthakudu, Yamagola and Yamadonga (same basic story in all three)., and he is seen only in the role of  the person who judges you at the time of death and decides where you will go. Some people and traditions even confuse him with mRtyu – death and kAla – time (death due to time).

Unlike this in the movie Sri Manjunatha, you see the devotee Manjunatha welcoming Yama as the one’s best friend. So I like the song. The character Manjunatha is played by the Kannada Actor incidentally named Arjun! The one you see with the famous noose in the video is Siva and not Yama, since Manjunatha was an an exceptional devotee. (As Indra came for Sravana Kumara, Yama came for Markandeya). Really lesser mortals get only messengers or dUtas.

Authorship and Copyright Notice : All Rights Reserved : Satya Sarada Kandula

Where the sons of Gods struggled for a place among men!

This thought process was spurred be a conversation with a westerner-friend of mine. She wanted the mantram that Durvasa taught Kunthi Devi, the aunt of Krishna, and the mother of Karna, Yudhisthira, Bhima and Arjuna. Their society would not give her a hard time for not being married to someone when she had a divine child. But the story is so different in India.

From close to the end of Dwapara Yuga, when Kunthi bore Karna, the sun of Surya (Sun) Deva, till today., our attitudes have been hard on mothers and children, outside the context of marriage. Else why would this aunt of Dharma Samsthapaka, Sri Krishna, abandon a baby in the river? When Yama granted Savithri (daughter of Asvapathi, wife of Satyavan) a boon of a hundred sons, and she pointed out that he was taking her husband’s life away, he restored her husband’s life rather than suggest that she marry again or have children out of wedlock.

In India, Karna, the son of Surya, had to fight for a place in the Kshatriya caste, because he was raised by Sutas, Adhirata and Radha.  Yudhisthira and his brothers, the sons of Yama, Vayu, Indra and the Aswini (Ashwini) Twins,  had to fight with the sons of human kings to establish their sovereignty. (It reminds me of another incident in the middle east.) I don’t think humans look too kindly on the sons of Gods.

Sugriva, the son of Surya, had to fight his brother Vali, the son of Indra, as Arjuna, the son of Indra had to fight Karna the son of Surya.

Finally all of them did bow to and serve, the sons of men Rama and Krishna!

As I write I wonder how my friend will come back on this matter. Even Samba, the son of Jambavathi (daughter of Jambavan) and Krishna, was instrumental in the destruction of the Yadavas. Narakasura was the son of Bhudevi and Varaha, an avataar of Vishnu.

It is true that women wish to carry the genes of spectacular men/beings and bear awesome sons, but their lives may not be easy in India or in the middle-east. It might be different in USA or Africa.

See Also Devas: Human or Divine?

Authorship and Copyright Notice : All Rights Reserved : Satya Sarada Kandula