The story of Karna is described in a very poignant and mysterious form in the Mahabharata written by Ved Vyas. Before marriage, due to the blessing of sage Durvasa, Kunti got a son, whom she threw into the river due to fear of the society. This child was Karna, son of Surya. While floating in the river stream, charioteer Adhirath and his wife adopted the baby and brought him up. Later, Duryodhana, the eldest son of King Dhritarashtra of Hastinapur, recognizing Karna’s talent, made him his friend and made him the king of Anga country. The biggest irony of Karna’s life was that neither he himself could know the truth of his birth nor were the Pandavas and Kauravas aware of the secret that he was the eldest son of Kunti. Karna had two wives – Rishaali and Supriya.
Rishaali belonged to Suta clan. Karna got nine sons from him. During the Mahabharata war, Karna’s eight sons – Vrishasena, Chitrasen, Satyasen, Susen, Shatrunjay, Prasen, Bansen and others were martyred at the hands of great warriors like Arjun, Bhima and Satyaki. Only the youngest son Vrishketu, who was young at that time, did not join the war on the orders of Bhishma Pitamah.
After the Mahabharata war, Karna’s last rites were performed at the hands of Shri Krishna as per his boon. Karna’s wife Rishaali could not bear the separation from her husband and became Sati. Here Vrishketu resolved to avenge his father’s death, but Emperor Yudhishthir accepted the truth and declared Karna as his elder brother and affectionately made Vrishketu the ruler of Indraprastha. Vrishketu later participated in many military campaigns with Arjuna.
When Kunti hid the secret of Karna’s birth, Dharmaraja Yudhishthir cursed his mother that in future no woman would be able to hide the secret. After this he abandoned Kunti. Kunti, Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, Vidur and Sanjay departed for the forest. It is said that the regret of not accepting Karna continued to torment Kunti throughout her life, hence Vrishketu served as her support.
One day a fire broke out in the forest and the fire started spreading very fast. Blindfolded Gandhari and Dhritarashtra could not run away. When they started burning in the forest fire, Kunti, Vidur and Sanjay did not leave them and all of them got burnt to death in the forest fire. Later, when the Pandavas moved towards the Himalayas, the rule of Indraprastha remained in the hands of Vrishketu and the kingdom of Hastinapur remained in the hands of Parikshit. Parikshit died due to the bite of Takshak snake, after which his son Janamejaya organized a snake yagya.