My Take - Karna's Wife

I experienced a rollercoaster ride of emotions while reading this novel, ranging from annoyance, frustration to admiration. At times I felt like throwing away this novel but somehow I managed to labour through it and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I actually liked the ending, which I have not expected at all. As the title explicitly suggests, the novel is about Karna’s second wife Uruvi. Karna is one of the most intriguing characters of Mahabharata and much have been written and continues to be written about him. However, endowing a voice to his wife is a unique concept, though Uruvi, the protagonist is Kavita Kané’s imaginative creation, i.e. the character is not mentioned in the original Vyasa Mahabharata.

In this novel, the author brings forth the story of Mahabharata through the eyes of Uruvi, where Karna becomes one of the central characters while the Pandavas are relegated to the background. However, Uruvi does not narrate the story in her own voice rather it is narrated by an omniscient third person narrator, which sometimes becomes too preachy or belligerent. In the first half of the novel, I found Uruvi extremely annoying and thus the novel became tedious. Kané attempted to create a strong, independent and feisty character of Uruvi but ended up making her cheeky, vain, pretentious and annoyingly know-it-all. I don’t approve of the author’s attempt to portray Uruvi as a perfect character by belittling other women. The author inadvertently (I hope) employs the cliché “She is not like other women” to emphasize the superiority and perfection of Uruvi.

Another aspect of the novel which infuriated me was its blatant anachronism and the blithe disregard of facts and logic. Firstly, no king in ancient India ever had a single girl child; if they are impotent they will adopt or somehow manage to procure at least two male children, an heir and a spare. But, Uruvi is shown here as the only child of her parents. Also, Uruvi is portrayed as too independent and outspoken. Throughout the novel Uruvi is shown as attending royal assemblies (which were obviously inaccessible to any women) and giving a piece of her mind even to the Kuru patriarch Bheeshma. I understand that Kané desperately wanted to establish Uruvi as a fiercely independent woman but she should portray her within the confines of the freedom granted to the women of that particular time period. The author can’t transgress the social and moral conventions of the time period in which the narrative is situated, but unfortunately in her ambitious portrayal of Uruvi she transgresses the confines and renders the novel anachronistic.

The author also blatantly disregards facts (established by herself) in order to spice up the narrative. For example, it is mentioned that it took Uruvi and Karna two days to reach Anga from Pukeya after their marriage. However, when Uruvi delivers her child (in morning), Karna and Radha reach Pukeya from Anga by the afternoon of that same day (and they started their journey only in the morning).

The writing is pretty mediocre and throughout the novel there is hardly any action and the plot progresses when one character narrates the events to another. Throughout the novel Uruvi converses/argues with other characters and two different aspects of an event is presented through such dialogues. However, it is always Uruvi who emerges triumphant in such moral/ philosophical arguments. These moralizing dialogues mostly become tedious and redundant.

The only thing that I liked about this novel and which made my reading worthwhile is the message it sends across. While Mahabharata emphasizes war, vengeance and glorifies death in battlefield, Karna’s Wife emphasizes the futility of war. It presents the meaninglessness of the carnage and the destruction that war wreaks. Also, it emphasizes and glorifies the virtue of forgiveness. Hatred and vengeance blot out the virtues of a man and becomes the reason of his downfall. The fire of vengeance indiscriminately devours everything and can be doused only through the shower of forgiveness. To err is human, to forgive is divine, and this is what Karna’s Wife effectively brings forth.

I will end my review with the only line of the novel that struck a chord in my heart:

“Hate and anger are corrosive – they only allow evil to flourish.”

My rating – 2 🌟