Kunti

Kunti’s abandonment of Karna is one of the most debated and criticized actions in the Mahabharata. How could a mother put her newborn baby in a basket and set him afloat in a river? What kind of desperation or fear drives someone to do that? The answer isn’t simple or satisfying. Kunti didn’t abandon Karna…

For most of his life, Karna had no idea that Kunti was his biological mother. He grew up believing he was the son of Adhiratha and Radha, the charioteer couple who found him floating in a basket. They raised him with love, and he considered them his only parents. The truth about his birth was…