Okay, given the current track of Kunti being tortured by the memory of what she did to Karna, it brought up an interesting question - stated above.By itself, given the traditions then, I do think that there was a good likelihood that Pandu would have balked @ accepting Kunti had it been known before hand that she had a baby b4 marriage. However, my question here is about what he might have done after the curse.
As is known, Pandu was cursed by Rishi Kindam for shooting him & his wife while they were in the form of deer consummating (really strange form to take while consummating, but I digress). The curse was that if Pandu tried consummating any woman, he'd die instantly. That's what forced the Niyoga process for Kunti & Madri.
However, at this point, when Pandu explained his issue (in a manner of speaking) to Kunti, was this a missed opportunity for her? What if she had told him about Karna? As a king (even though he had by then abdicated, but he could still have gathered support from Bheeshma & others), he could have launched a search for Karna, especially a baby w/ such a unique possession as a kavach & kundala, and then adopted him back from Adiratha & Radha.
Or do you think Pandu would have been enraged & disowned her as a result? Remember that Bheeshma knew about Karna, and it's been theorized that he approached Shalya for Madri's hand precisely due to this - or else, why would he have wanted a second wife for Pandu, which he didn't for Dhritarashtra?
Of course, Karna would still have been a kanina son, or he would have become a sahoda son (see a description of the customs in this post) and would not have had any legitimate claim on the throne itself - that would still have been Yudhisthir's. However, Karna would not have had any other handicaps - he could have learnt his stuff along w/ his brothers, he could have married Draupadi or any other princess, w/o it being a pratiloma marriage & so on. So once he had Karna, Pandu could have then decided whether he was happy w/ this son alone, or wanted 5 more. Chances are that he'd still have wanted 5. However, w/ Karna now established as a Pandava, Duryodhan would have been facing formidable opposition and would have been less adventurous than he was had Karna from day one started squarely as a Pandava, if not a claimant to the throne.
Anyway, back to Pandu - how do you think he'd have reacted had Kunti told him the truth?
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