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The greatest character in Mahabharat

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Who, in your view, is the greatest, or at least your most fav. character in Mahabharat? Please leave out Krishna because he is god and therefore he is great, no matter. Barring Krishna, who else is your fav. (or greatest, IYO)? Please state the reasons as well. It could help us learn a lot from each other.

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When I consider one character, then I find him/her to be a very great character. But, then I start thinking over another character and I find that character to be very great.

 

I do not think like this about all characters. But, there are some characters among which finding the greatest is really difficult.

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Give me Grandfather Bhisma any time. the rest is pathetic compared.

who else could lay on a bed of arrows and instruct the Pandavas, without being disturbed?

my favourite skanda is the shantiparva, in which this is described.

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I do like many qualities of Karna, but he is not my favourite. Because of the life that Karna lived, he gets lots of sympathies, but sympathising with somebody is not the same as considering him great.

 

Vidur, Bhishma Pitamah, Arjuna, Vidur, Gandhari and Kunti are some of my favourites. I have to really think a lot to pick one out of them.

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it is impossible NOT to consider Karna great, at least for me. It is not merely the circumstances under which he lived but his heroism, loyalty, generosity, skills etc. Of course, one can always point to his shortcomings (such as his lies to parasurama and abimanyu's murder) but who is perfect?

 

The beauty of Mahabharat is that all the great characters have terrible flaws, including bhisma, kunti etc. So to pick Karna alone for his defects is unfair. Others, including the good guys like kunti and pandavas, have also done pretty bad things, compared to which Karna's faults appear almost harmless. Was Karna's deception against parasurama as evil as kunti's silence which destroyed an entire family? Certainly not. Was the abimanyyu incident more stealthy than the killing of karna or durypdhana? Of course not. See, all of the characters had their shortcomings. But to pick one and ignore or rationalise the other is unfair.

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It also makes a difference on how the word great is used. Greatness may always refer to the most flawless in character. For instance Hitler Stalin and Mao were all great in recent human history but so was Gandhi.

 

Also greatness can be seen in those not necessarily on center stage much of the time , such as Vidura.

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With King Yudhisthira, Bhimasena, Vidura, Queen Kunthi, and the Yaksa in the form of a Crane (who was really Lord Yamaraja).

 

But there are others, too. I actually liked Duryodhana after he was mortally wounded and laying hidden in the crystal lake. It was there that he showed contrition about the act of Aswattama and told the story of the birth of Death.

 

But there are so many, really.

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Hare Krsna and Dandavats to all devotees

 

According to Srimad Bhagavatam (what I have heard so please correct me) Iam not sure exactly how many Mahajans (great personalities) there are but I can mention some that I can remember, they are Narada Muni, Lord Siva, Prahlad Maharaj,Grandfather Bhisma Dev and I cannot remember the others. Therefore I would say It has to be Pita-Maha Bhisma dev

 

The reason I think what makes him great is that even unto his last breath Lord Krsna was on his lips. He tought us how to pass away by describing the glories of Lord Krsna.

 

Thus I would also consider HDG Sirla Prabhupada as a Mahajan although he was not on the Battle field Of Krukshetra He was involved in a Battle that he waged against Maya and was and always will be victorious.

 

So everybody say loudly SIRLA PRABHUPADA KI JAY!!!!!!!

 

HARE KRSNA

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Lord Yamaraja is also authority on devotional service, and is counted among the twelve.

 

svayambhur naradah sambhuh kumarah kapilo manuh

prahlada janako bhismo balir vaiyasakir vayam

 

Brahma, Narada, Siva, the four Kumaras, Kapiladeva, Svayambhuva Manu, Prahlada, Janaka Maharaja, Bhisma, Bali Maharaja, Sukadeva Goswami and I (Yamaraja) know the real transcendental principles of religion. (Bhag. 6.3.20)

 

Mahajanas are my favorite subject.

 

Hare Krsna, mahaksadasa

 

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Purely from an epic point of view, the greatest, most loved, sympathized characters would have to be karna and Bheeshma.

Now someone has said that Karna is just sympathized but that doesnt make him great. I totally disagree with that and am with the subsequent mail in saying that all characters had flaws in them including Bhishma.

Didnt Bhishma know the true identity of Karna? Ppl keep blaming Kunti all the time for hiding Karna's true identity. How about both Vidura & Bhishma? Both knew about his true identity all along, yet they kept mum. The reason given in the epic is that it just had to be kept mum. How is that justifiable?

Ok, forget revealing his true identity. Bhishma many times joined the Pandavas (esp Arjuna & Bhima) in taunting Karna as a sutaputra. Was that right?

Ok let's forget Karna altogether. How come Bhishma went to Kashi and just abducted the 3 princesses without even asking them about their likes and dislikes? That too they were abducted not for him but for the diseased Vichitraveerya.When so much hue and cry was made about Duryodhana insulting Draupadi, Kshatriyas needing to protect the honour of women etc etc, what was Bhishma doing abducting them without their wishes even?

So, you see all characters had flaws to be picked upon.

However, karna & Bhishma, despite their flaws and given the circumstances that they lived in, can be considered truly super great individual characters in the epic.

Before commenting on their flaws any person, (including myself ) should first try to place himself / herself in a similar situation and then think about what he/she might have done in that place? For example, I might have done the same thing that karna did during the Draupadi incident.

Draupadi had always continuously humiliated Karna including not even giving him a chance to participate in the swayamvara. And he wasnt even there to ask her hand in marriage. So, you think he wouldnt have been hurt. he probably just reacted in a way to vent his hurt & humiliation. He also regretted it later which was his greatness. But I dont think any of the Pandavas except Yudishtira ever regretted killing karna that too in the manner that they did!

 

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  • 3 years later...

I really like what the poster above me said ^^^

 

My favorite character is Karna. he was greatest daanveer no one in the world can be equal/surpass him. even god himself came to him and begged for his Kavach and Kundals for alm.

 

Also he is was one of the greatest warriors. great archer like arjuna, follower of dharma like Yudhishtir, handsome like nakul and sahdev, powerful like Bhima. He defeated Bhima after long and intense battle. He spared those four pandavas because of a promise to his mother Kunti. karna's son were died by pandavas and yet Karna spared all the pandavas. what a great man he was. Karna's wife wanted him to kill those pandavas that killed her sons but Karna said no and he couldn't tell the reason.

 

the only way to kill Karna was deceition. it shows arjuna's inability to kill Karna. Karna troubled arjuna in Kurushetra war. of course Arjuna defeated Karna in Virata war. The virata war nothing compared to Kurushetra war. during virata war, bhisma, drona, kripa didn't want to harm their dear arjuna. in kurushetra war, everyone was enemy, forgetting their relation. Karna cheated once and Arjuna cheated twice.

 

karna killed abhimanyu by cheating

 

Arjuna killed Pitamah by using Shikandi and He killed Karna when he was weaponless.

 

Bhima defeated jarasandh by lord krishna's help. before that, Karna battled with jarasandh and he single handedly defeated jarasandh. Also karna was the first one to expose jarasandh's weakness.

 

Drapadi was the worse one....what a self-obessessed, arrogant woman. people say she was a panchkanya, a purest woman. I don't consider her as a pure woman.....how can a woman that insulted karna by saying "sutaputra" and duryodhan " a blind son of a blind dad". didn't she have any idea to reject Karna in respectful way. such women can't be pure.

 

There is one greatness of karna...even lord krishna praised.....during the battle, arjuna pushed karna's chariot 10 steps back....Karna pushed arjuna's rath two step back....Krishna was impressed and he began to praise karna...Arjuna was stunned and asked why he was praising karna...krishna said

 

Arjuna...I am a god that preserves the entire universe and I am the heaviest man and on one can shake me but Karna managed to do it. ..remeber there was another god sitting on arjuna's chariot. ...it was Hanuman who was protecting arjuna from the deadly arrows of Pitamah, Drona and karna....Karna shook two gods "Krishna and Hanuman" at the same time....he was the greatest and powerful warrior.

 

this proves karna was the greatest warrior......he had many good qualities

 

1) powerful warrior

2) great loyalty

3) daanveer

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I really like what the poster above me said ^^^

 

 

 

There is one greatness of karna...even lord krishna praised.....during the battle, arjuna pushed karna's chariot 10 steps back....Karna pushed arjuna's rath two step back....Krishna was impressed and he began to praise karna...Arjuna was stunned and asked why he was praising karna...krishna said

 

Arjuna...I am a god that preserves the entire universe and I am the heaviest man and on one can shake me but Karna managed to do it.

 

 

very interesting !! i have heard this before as well !!...but is it stated in the mahabharat?...can you kindly give some ref.

 

i also like KARAN , my son is named after him as well !

 

jaswant

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There are many stories told based on the Mahabharata and Ramayana which are not to be found in the Sanskrit version of the text and this is one of them.

 

For what it is worth, the version of the Mahabharata is that Yudhishthira is the greatest character because he is closest to dharma. It is for this reason that he ascends to heaven without tasting death, when all the other characters die. It is said at the end that the only sin he committed in his whole life was telling the lie that led to the death of Dronacharya. And in mitigation it must be said that he was asked to do this by Krishna himself.

 

Dharma seems to be the central theme of the Mahabharata narrative and in terms of dharma, Yudhishthira is unrivalled.

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It seems hard to name a "favorite" character in such a complex drama. I find Vidura and Gatotckacha perhaps the most likable. Gandhari is an inimitable example. Kunti's forbearance is admirable. Draupadi is really something as a warrior princess. Bhisma and Karna may be the most interesting. But an even more interesting, likeable, and admirable character is my favorite: the center and catalyst of the whole story, Krishna.

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I tend to research on Karna sometimes on the net and i have found on some nets, stating that Karna managed to shake arjuna's divine rath with two gods on it.

 

also you can see this on TV serial Shri Krishna on hindilinks4u.net. Krishna said to Arjuna that Karna was more powerful than him because he shook two gods on arjuna's divine rath....Shri krishna episode is pretty long but you can find mahabharat battle after episode # 220 or something..you will need to click on each episode to see that...i forgot the specific episode..pardon me

 

my one friend has a deep knowledge about Mahabharat and he said Karna also had Pasupathastra. he got it from shiva right before shiva gave to arjuna. he also told him that Karna also took pasupastra from him.

hail Karna.

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Hare Krishna!

 

Great topic :)

 

As for my favorites (beside Sri Krishna) I really like Arjuna and Draupadi. First I like Arjuna because of his flaws and doubt and his constant striving to do whats right. I feel like in some ways I can relate to his character (especially when he hesitates on Kurushetra)

 

I like Draupadi too because to me she has such an internal strength. I find particularly touching, the moment when she is lost in the dice game and her clothes were being taken. She showed pure strong faith in Krishna. Even during exile she was strong.

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It is not possible for us to pass agnipariksha like Arjun,just next to impossible in my opinion.Eventhough we have Shri Bhagvat Gita with us now but can we impliment the rules set inside it like Arjuna did?No.!

 

I feel like in some ways I can relate to his character (especially when he hesitates on Kurushetra)

 

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