Karna of Mahabarata is loved by all because he had suffered and humiliated by almost all.

When you read Mahabarata you will come across Karna, the eldest of the Pandava brothers but was not accepted by them as they were unaware of his birth and his bringing  up. Karna was born to Kunti the wife of King Pandu by the divine power of Sun (Soorya) and as Kunti was not married at that time and hence  he was left in a vessel covered with a cloth and left to drift in the river Ganga. The boy was seen and rescued by a chariot driver who had adopted him as his own son, christened him as Karna and Karna grew there. Since he was brought up by the lowly Chariot driver he was looked down by all and even though he had learnt and mastered all the valours of a great warrior he was not respected and accepted until he proved his mettle in a game with Arjuna one of the Pandavas  who was a famous warrior. Duryodhana the prince was very happy and accepted him as a brother and made him a King of a small State of Anga so that he can be equal to Arjuna.

 Karna had joined Duryodhana in the war against Pandavas because of his friendship for Duryodhana who had made him the king of  'Anga'. Duryodhana  wanted him to defeat Arjuna . But Arjuna was a great warrior and had many  equipments and arms blessed by Gods and was the friend of Lord Krishna. So Duryodhana wanted Karna to be fully prepared to face Arjuna in the war and advised him to go and  get  the ‘Pasupathaasthram’ from Parasurama.

Parasurama was a Brahmin who had killed his own mother on the instruction of his father  Jamathagni, a famous sage, and himself an avatar or reincarnation of Lord Vishnu. After killing his mother , his father became very happy as his son had accomplished what he had asked him to do and  promised a boon to Parasurama. Parasurama without any hesitation asked his father to give life to his slain mother which his father happily did and his mother came to her life.

Parasurama’s father was killed by a king, belonging to the  Kshatriya community and Parasurama in his anger had taken a vow to kill all Kshatriyas and went on killing all of them. Only Lord Rama was able to stop him and was himself another incarnation of Lord Vishnu and hence was equal to Parasurama in might with all the armaments  including the archery.

Only Parasurama could teach and give him the arms he wanted to defeat Arjuna and hence went in search of Parasurama as a Brahmin to ask for his divine arms.
 

So Karna went in search of Parasurama  in the guise of a Brahmin and became Parasurama’s  disciple and stayed in his humble abode, doing all his daily chores honestly and obediently for many years. Parasurama was very happy at his unwavering integrity and sincerity  and taught him all the techniques of archery including the ‘Pasupathaasthram’ which was a powerful tool against which there was no protection and if it was sent against anybody it would surely kill the person and destroy him. Parasurama got the  ‘Brahmastaram’ as a boon from Lord Brhma.

One day Parasurama was sleeping on the mat with his head resting on the thigh of Karna. Indra, the father of Arjuna was worried and afraid that Karna would kill his son. He wanted to spoil the chance of Karna and wanted to expose him to Parasurama. He took the form of a spider and went and started boring the thigh of Karna.

Blood began to ooze out of the wound and Karna was in great pain but he kept quiet and did not move any of his body parts as the movements could disturb the master, Parasurama from his slumber.

After some time Parasurama got up from his sleep and found Karna bleeding and in great pain. He asked Karna for the reason. Karna showed the him the spider and the wound. By the time Indra ,the spider has vanished from that area and flew away.

Parasurama became very agitated and asked Karna who he was. “You cannot be a Brahmin as you could tolerate the pain and sit still while no Brahmin could do that.” 

Karna folded his hands and fell at the feet of Parasurama and told him who he was.

Parasurama became angry and told Karna  that he has learnt the ‘ Pasupathaasthram’ by deceit and lies. So Karna would forget the use of  ‘Brahmastram’ at the hour of its need. He asked him to leave his abode and never come in front of him. Karna left that place with the curse of Parasurama and came back to Duryodhana and informed him what has happened.

Duryodhan consoled him and made Karna as the General of his army after the death of Bishma, his grand father. Karna did wonderfully in the war and killed scores of people.

Finally Arjuna and Karma had to fight. Arjuna’s chariot was driven by Lord Krishna. In the fighting when Karna as a last resort aimed the  Pasupathaasthram at Arjuna and was about to say the mantra for that, he forgot the mantra and  Pasupathaasthram went to Brahma who was its creator.Finally the charioteer of Karna had a quarrel with him and deserted him and walked out of the war. Karna’s chariot  sank in the mud and one wheel got entangled in the mud. Karna got down and was extracting it whenLord Krishna asked Arjuna to aim his arrow at Karna and kill him . Arjuna did as he was asked to do and Karna got shot with an arrow and died in the battle field.

Hearing Karna’s death ,Kunti his mother, came to the battle field and took him on her laps and cried. Seeing this Arjuna and his other brothers were surprised and asked why she did that. Then only they were informed that Karna was their own brother as Kunti revealed the truth. Kunti had the five  boons from sage Durvasa that she could have sons from the five Gods, Soorya, Dharma, Vayu, Indra and Aswini . She had  four sons Karna, Dharma, Bheema, Arjuna and one boon she game to Madhuri who was the second wife of Pandu who could not produce any children as he was cursed by a sage to that effect. Madhuri  had delivered Nakul and Sahadev. Since Karna was born before Kunti was married, she put him in a box and left him in the  river Ganga and Karma was taken and brought up by one charioteer.

In the whole Maha Bharata, Karna is the only character who had the love of all whoever reads it as he  suffered the most.