Is Mahabharata really Arjuna's over glorified story?

I have come across some Karna fans who are stating that Mahabharata is biased on the side of Arjuna, and thus they lead themselves to two conclusions. Mahabharata cannot be authentic (it clearly is authentic, it is the only reason we know today who Karna and Arjuna even are). The other conclusion is that Karna's feats are not given that much attribute (which is a lie, as he is given his due, glory and recognition numerous times).

I'll have you all know that even Arjuna's feats are skipped. The details of his life are skipped also.

• Arjuna's encounter with the Gandharva Tumvuru.
• Quote:

He then, O Bharata, applied the Gandharva weapon and the illusion consequent to it. 1 Practising ascetic penances, Arjuna had obtained that weapon from the Gandharva Tumvuru and others. With that weapon, Abhimanyu now confounded his foes.

• Analysis: Arjuna's encounter is just mentioned in one line, compare that to Karna (whose encounter with Parasurama is mentioned in one complete section/chapter, that has hundreds of dozens lines of text). Karna's training - http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a003.htm
• Arjuna encountered other Gandharvas like ANgaraparna & Citrasena, but it is never really shown where he encountered this third Gandharva "Tumvuru"...
• SourcE: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m07/m07042.htm
• Arjuna's training of arms under Krishna.
• Proof that he was trained by Krishna.

First reference:

Trained in arms by the preceptor Drona, by Sakra, and Vaisravana, and Yama, and Varuna, and Agni, and Kripa, and Krishna of Madhu's race, and by the wielder of the Pinaka (Siva), why shall I not fight with these?

Source: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m04/m04045.htm

Second reference:

Having paid my respects, for battle's sake, to Rudra, Sakra, Vaisravana, Yama, Varuna, Pavaka, Kripa, Drona, and Madhava, and wielding that tough celestial bow of great energy called Gandiva, and accoutred with inexhaustible arrows and armed with celestial weapons, how can a person like me, O tiger among men, say, even unto Indra armed with the thunderbolt, such words as I am afraid!

Analysis: Over here all the characters that Arjuna paid respects to are his guru's in arms who he received military training from. And Madhava was another name of Krishna.

Source: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m05/m05159.htm

• But these are all just mere mentions of the simple fact that he trained under him. 
• Their should be at-least one section of text in the Mahabharata dedicated to how he was trained by Krishna. 
• After all, his training under Dronacarya is given almost half a dozen sections... But his training under Krishna is referenced by barely even a single line of text? 
• No that's not fair. 
• We can say Mahabharata is biased against Krishna and Arjuna then.

• The exploits of Arjuna during his solo 12 year exile.
• Simple facts. 
• The exile of Arjuna was 12 years long.
• Yet only eight chapters dedicated to Arjuna's life in exile?
• first chapter - http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01217.htm
• last chapter - http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01224.htm
• The exile of the Pandavas was 12 years long once again in Vana Parva.
• Yet over 310 (THREE HUNDRED TEN!) chapters for their life in exile completely? Most of it is not even to do with Arjuna. Arjuna only gets like barely a tenth of screen time in Vana Parva.
• Last chapter of Vana Parva (Pandavas Vanvas) - http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03313.htm
• Is the biasedness towards Arjuna not real? The one sidedness? Where Vaisampayana only recited 8 chapters for Arjuna's twelve years of life?
  
• Arjuna's conquests during the Rajasuya are all one liners and skimmed over.

You can easily read them over here.

1. Part 1 - http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02026.htm
2. Part 2 - http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02027.htm

I agree that it's far better than Karna's conquest was detailed but still, such a large scale invasion with so many wars should logically be described in a dozen chapters at the very least.

Here is an example, one line from the first part:

After this he subjugated Modapura, Vamadeva, Sudaman, Susankula, the Northern Ulukas, and the kings of those countries and peoples. 

Is this in any way a fair description where FIVE kingdoms are conquered in one line of text only?

• The way Arjuna trained the future generation of warriors in Mahabharata.

Quote:

All of them, of excellent behaviour and vows, after having studied the Vedas, acquired from Arjuna a knowledge of all the weapons, celestial and human. And, O tiger among kings, the Pandavas, having obtained sons all of whom were equal unto the children of the celestials and endued with broad chests, and all of whom became great warriors, were filled with joy.

Analysis: Military training cannot be described in two sentences especially when duels in Mahabharata are described within three hundred sentences. Clear bias against Arjuna.

Source: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01224.htm

Quote two:

And those princes also, endued with great strength, who dressing themselves in deer-skins learnt the science of weapons under Arjuna, waited upon Yudhishthira. And O king, the princes also of the Vrishni race, viz., Pradyumna (the son of Rukmini) and Samva, and Yuyudhana the son of Satyaki and Sudharman and Aniruddha and Saivya that foremost of men who had learnt the science of arms under Arjuna these and many other kings, O lord of the Earth, used to wait on Yudhishthira on that occasion.

Analysis two: The training is not described, Arjuna's teachings are not described. How these characters (Satyaki, Samva, Pradyumna, Sudharman, Aniruddha, Saivya etc) developed are not described.

Source two: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02004.htm
They don't tell us anything special about how Arjuna trained Satyaki.

One of the major complaints of Karna fans (like Sanjay, who in my opinion is the best debater among the Karna fans, but even he is no match for me, as i defeated him a dozen times, here is the profile of Sanjay - https://www.quora.com/profile/Sanjay-79/log check it out if you will, you can see all his comments and edits) is that the digvijaya yatra's of the Pandavas are each given more than one section so all together they were given 7 sections.

Sabha Parva section 25 - (http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02025.htm) is the beginning of their conquest. And Sabha Parva section 31 - (http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02031.htm) obviously is the end of the Digvijaya of the Pandavas. 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31.

The reasons the Pandavas conquest was so much longer than Karna's are because of the obvious facts.

1. Vaisampayana had to narrate the exploits of four warriors separately not together, when it comes to Karna's digvijaya (only he participated in it) so Vyasa/Vaisampayana only had to talk about one person.
2. The digvijaya of Karna could easily be considered an interpolation.
1. After all the reason he went on the digvijaya was to prove his skills to everyone and shut up people like Bhisma who bashed him for fleeing from the Ghosha Yatra conflict.
1. But clearly this digvijaya did not stop people from complaining about Karna's defeats.
1. Characters like Shalya, Drona, Bhisma, Krishna, Yudhishthira etc still talked about Karna's defeats in life.
1. In-fact even Dhritarashtra himself mentions the defeats of Karna in Udyoga Parva.
1. So these facts clearly lead me to believe that either Karna's digvijaya was unsuccessful or it did not happen at all.
2. Another reason it could be interpolated is that Karna did not even need to make anyone accept Duryodhana as the emperor. 
1. He was already considered emperor when he won everything that Yudhishthira owned during the incident of the game of dice.
2. When all the property of the previous emperor (Yudhishthira) is already now Duryodhana's, what would be the point of making someone else submit to Duryodhana's sovereignty (it was acceptance not rule).
3. Also if Karna did the digvijaya yatra then why would he need to go on a mission to conquer the Matsya kingdom in Virata Parva?
1. Logically speaking their should have been no need, absolutely no need to even make a invasion on this kingdom as it should have already been conquered by Karna during the digvijaya yatra in Vana Parva.
3. The time limits
1. Karna had a time limit for his digvijaya.
1. It happened after Ghosha Yatra (according to the texts).
1. And Ghosha Yatra was on the last year of the Pandava's exile (before their year of incognito in Virata Parva).
2. His digvijaya would have to have succeeded before the thirteenth (13th) year of the Pandavas exile started, before the beginning of Virata Parva.
1. So Karna had less than a year (365 days) to complete his conquest.
3. Dhritarashtra talks about Karna subjugating 22 kingdoms of india in his digivjaya, he says this in Karna Parva, (it is included in Debroy's translation of BORI as well).
1. So how could Karna conquer twenty two kingdoms, and make an oath to slay Arjuna, and even trade his Kavacha Kundala for the Vasavi dart of Indra all in less than a year?
1. Even if we consider each war to be only 18 (eighteen days) then the total would add up to 396 days (over a year perhaps 13 months). This would make it seem like the digvijaya of karna continued on into Virata Parva as well.
1. But then that still doesn't ignore the fact that Karna never conquered the Matsya kingdom of Virata.
2. Pandavas had no such time limit. Their yatra obviously happened after the Khandava Daha (which happened 33 years before the Kurukshetra war and thus 18 years before the dice game), so they had numerous years at their disposal.

So as you can all read clearly their are multiple differences in both digvijaya's. Which is why Karna only got one section dedicated to it, it was probably an interpolated digvijaya anyways.

• Another unfortunate complaint of the Karna fanbase is that the Mahabharata does not even mention the names of Karna's two wives.

1. This claim is only true to a certain extent.
2. According to Indonesian Mahabharata the wife of Karna was named Surtikanti. And she was the daughter of Shalya, this would make sense.

Quote:

The Indonesian poets believe that superiority in war always goes with superiority in love. Both Karna and Duryodhana are losers to Arjuna in both love and war. Both their wives love Arjuna. The superior might of the Pandavas in war also matches their ‘might’ in love spanning over three generations.Shalya as Karna’s father-in-law is bound to throw new light on the Karna-Shalya dialogue in the Indian Mahabharata, and is also a possible explanation why Shalya could swallow his ego and become Karna’s charioteer! Going by Indonesian version, the bitter Karna-Shalya dialogue in the Indian version is after all a father-in-law vs. son-in-law pleasantry bout!!

Source: https://sobokartti.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/variations-in-indonesian-mahabharata/

1. Coming to authenticity of the Indonesian Mahabharata.
2. It is more ancient than KMG Mahabharata, the texts were traded when Indians used to trade with Indonesians, so this is from before 1896.

• Looking at Karna's opinion of what a wife should be like. 
• Karna's statement:

O excellent one, the slave, the son, and the wife are always dependent. They cannot earn wealth, for whatever they earn belongeth to their master. Thou art the wife of a p. 138 slave incapable of possessing anything on his own account.

Source: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m02/m02070.htm

• Karna would sacrifice his wife for a friend/master like Duryodhana:

Karna to Bhisma:

Like Vasudeva's son who is firmly resolved for the sake of the Pandavas, I also, O thou that makest profuse presents to Brahmanas, am prepared to cast away my possessions, my body itself, my children, and my wife, for Duryodhana's sake!

Analysis: He won't lie to a man on his deathbed, so this quote holds alot value and the words of Karna weight alot more over here. Also Karna is trying to explain why he is making the decision to side with the Kouravas and to not save the lives of millions of innocents. He cosnidered his wife a possession and would disown her for Duryodhana instead.

Source: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06124.htm

• Karna offering his wives to foot-soldiers (belonging to the enemy army nonetheless) on the day of his death.

If that does not satisfy the person that discovers Arjuna to me, I will make him a more valuable gift, that, indeed, which he himself will solicit. Sons, wives and articles of pleasure and enjoyment that I have, these all I shall give him if he desires them.

Source: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m08/m08038.htm

• Karna's quotes could shed some light on what his personal life is like with his wives.
• So i think (in my opinion) the Mahabharata gave proper light,
• Vaisampayana/Vyasa did not have the time to talk about meaningless saas bahu dramas that are irrelevant to the story.
• The clear facts are that Karna's relatives (barring Adhiratha & Radha) did not have any contribution to Mahabharata, they did not have anytime for such saas bahu drama.

Proof:

"In that great battle of the Kurus came hundreds of thousands of monarchs for fighting against one another. The names of the innumerable host I am unable to recount even in ten thousand years. I have named, however, the principal ones who have been mentioned in this history.'"

Analysis: Their are too many characters and not enough time. Karna's wife was too irrelevant to be mentioned. For her name to be mentioned not her identity, because her identity in life was clearly that she was a wife of Karna.

Source: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m01/m01064.htm

Mahabharata does not spare anyone. Mahabharata is unfair to all characters. Even Arjuna did not get a lot of the achievements in his life narrated.

Mahabharata is not a multi starer movie, it is not a solo film either. It is an epic story that is the longest ever written on this earth.

I am satisfied with what has been written in the Mahabharata, but the fact remains to be a fact that it is not fair to any character. It is not fair completely, it is fair in some places and unfair in other places.