After the death of Dronacharya, Duryodhana was again overwhelmed with grief. Now after Dronacharya, Karna became the captain of his army. Arjuna got the authority of the Pandava army. Karna and Arjuna had a great battle with different types of weapons and weapons, which was going to beat even the Devasur-fight.
In the fight between Karna and Arjuna, Karna killed many heroes of the enemy side with his arrows. Before the seventeenth day, Karna fought with all the Pandavas except Arjuna. He defeated the Pandavas including Mahabali Bhima in a one-on-one battle, but he did not kill any Pandava as per his promise to mother Kunti.
In the war of the seventeenth day, at last the moment came when Karna and Arjuna came face to face. Both were equal in this glorious battle. Karna was gifted a bow named Vijay by his guru Parshuram, whose replica was made by Vishwakarma himself.
On Duryodhana’s request, Shalya, the maternal uncle of the Pandavas, agreed to become Karna’s charioteer. Because Arjuna’s charioteer was Shri Krishna himself and Karna was not less than Arjuna in any matter, for this Shalya was requested to become the charioteer.
Maharaj Shalya had all those qualities, which should be there in a worthy charioteer. The war between Arjuna and Karna was also characterized by the fact that when Arjuna’s arrows hit Karna’s chariot, his chariot would move back several yards, but when Karna’s arrows would hit Arjuna’s chariot, his chariot would move only a few yards. The distance of the palm) would slide away. Shri Krishna praised Karna on this. Astonished, Arjuna asked the reason for this praise of Karna, as his arrows were more effective in pushing the chariot back.
Then Shri Krishna said- “Only Karna and Shalya are burdened on Karna’s chariot, but Arjuna, you yourself, me and brave Hanuman are also sitting on your chariot, and even then Karna pushed his chariot back a little. “
Karna cut the string of Arjuna’s bow many times in the war, but every time Arjuna would put the string on the bow in the blink of an eye. Karna praises Arjuna for this and tells Shalya that- “He now understands why Arjuna is called the best archer.”
Karna and Arjuna fought a long and fierce battle, making full use of their respective knowledge of wielding divine weapons. ‘Nagastra’ was used by Karna to separate Arjuna’s head from the body, but at the right time, the chariot was slightly sunk into the ground by Shri Krishna, so that Arjuna was saved. Due to this ‘Nagastra’ came out just above the head of Arjuna piercing his crown. Ashwasena Nag present on the Nagastra requested Karna to use that weapon again so that this time it would come out piercing Arjuna’s body, but Karna refused to use that weapon again following the promise given to Mother Kunti. done.
Although the battle was becoming stalemated, Karna was entangled when one of his chariot wheels sank into the earth. He also finds himself unable to use divine weapons, as was the curse of his guru Parashurama. Then Karna got down to remove the wheel of his chariot and requested Arjuna to stop shooting arrows at him for some time, following the rules of war.
Then Shri Krishna says to Arjuna- “Karna has no right to talk about war rules and religion now, while he himself did not follow any war rules and religion at the time of killing Abhimanyu.” He further added that “where was his dharma when he called divine-born Draupadi a prostitute in front of the entire Kuru royal assembly. Where did his religion go in the gaming hall? That’s why now he has no right to talk about any religion or war rules. He told Arjuna that “Karna is helpless now, so he should kill him.”
Shri Krishna says that “Arjuna, if you do not kill Karna at this crucial juncture, then Pandavas will probably never be able to kill him and this war will never be won.” Then Arjuna beheaded Karna using a divine weapon. After Karna’s body fell on the ground, a flame came out from Karna’s body and merged into the Sun. After that King Shalya became the commander of the Kaurava army, but he could last only for half a day in the war. By noon, Yudhishthira took him to the land of death.
