A sitting
Karna’s Two Mothers
Why does the epic keep calling him suta-putra if Kunti is his mother? The tournament’s stranger is Kunti’s first child, raised as a suta.
Kunti is still a maiden when she tests Durvasa’s mantra. Surya comes. A son is born wearing armour and earrings. Afraid of her relatives, she puts him in the river. Adhiratha the charioteer and Radha lift him out and name him Vasusena. The world will say Radheya, Adhiratha’s son, suta-putra.
Years later a young man with that same armour walks into Drona’s tournament and matches Arjuna. Kripa asks for a king’s lineage. Duryodhana gives him Anga so the question goes away. Adhiratha comes down into the lists. Bhima laughs. Kunti, in the women’s hall, has seen the earrings and has not spoken.
He is suta-putra because that is the house that fed him. He is Kunti’s because that is the body that bore him. The recitation will not let either name cancel the other. On the eve of battle she finally says the second name to his face. He promises to spare her other sons. He will not spare Arjuna. That is the whole of the two mothers.
Ordered cast
Source notes
Mahabharata, Adi Parva (Sambhava, the tournament) and Udyoga, Ganguli. Foster and birth parents are both first-class in the graph. Last reviewed 12 September 2026.