"Karna's wife : The outcast's queen" debut novel of Kavita Kane. This book is published by Rupa Publications India in Aug 2013 and has 295 pages.
Uruvi princess of Pukeya & daughter of King Vahusha and Queen Shubra was a beautiful, brilliant, kind, brutally frank, lively and tempestuous lady. She fell in love with Karna at first sight. When her Swayamwar was due she declared her intention to marry him. Obviously there was a lot of resistance from her parents to marry a low cast and be at the receiving end of insults and ignominy of the society. Moreover Karna was already married and had 6-7 sons. Despite all the attempts to convince her otherwise, she had her way and married Karna to become his second wife (His first wife was Vrushali).
Karna is a classic case of a capable, kind and brave person yearning for recognition. Uruvi understands this, worships Karna for what he is, is indignant about the injustice meted out to him, wants his well but is unable to save him from clutches of Duryodhan and his definition of 'right'.
Uruvi can not believe that Karna can stoop so low during Draupadi's disrobing (वस्त्रहरण) and wants to leave Karna. Author has given an interesting angle to the tale at this juncture that Draupadi and Kunti try to persuade Uruvi not to leave Karna. Her father eventually succeeds in convincing her but can not make her go back to him. This section (her father's speech) is a master piece of wisdom and full marks to the author for putting up such a convincing argument. Another master piece is Uruvi's spirited berating of Bhishma Pitamah for allowing unspeakable and unpardonable things to happen under his watch and not trying to stop them from happening.
It was very brave of Uruvi to marry Karna for love. She knew that he will always be considered inferior due to his parentage and will always be insulted. She being his wife will have the receive same treatment and would be additionally hated by Khsatriyas for choosing a low cast over them. Her anger and sorrow know no bound after Karna's despicable behavior at Wastraharan.
Interestingly, author has emphasized that Karna new the outcome of impending war and his inevitable death since the Draupadi vastraharan fiasco. Uruvi loves him, wishes him well but can not change his destiny.
Mahabharata is full of larger than life characters. It is very difficult to establish an unknown character in the same story and and that too a central character, in the melee of such personalities. Author has mostly succeeded in this attempt.
I don't know if the character of Uruvi existed in Mahabharata or its a fictional character created by Kavita. As I remember Karna's second wife was Supriya.
A good book. Recommend reading.
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