About
Prasena — Son of Karna, Slain by Satyaki
Prasena · son of Karna · son of Radheya
Prasena is a son of Karna — the Kaurava warrior, king of Anga, and one of the most celebrated archers of the Mahabharata — and one of eight sons of Karna who participated in the Kurukshetra War. He is recorded as having been killed by Satyaki, the Yadava warrior fighting on the Pandava side, during the war. The context of his death — occurring in close proximity to Karna's own fighting — is described in the Karna Parva of the epic.
✦ The Name
Prasena derives from the Sanskrit pra (forward, excellent, chief) and sena (army), yielding the meaning of one with a foremost or excellent army. The name Prasena appears in other contexts in the tradition — most notably as the name of a Yadava prince in the story of the Syamantaka jewel — though the son of Karna is an entirely separate figure sharing only the name.
✦ Lineage
- Father: Karna (also known as Vasusena, Radheya, and Suryaputra), foremost archer of the Kaurava forces, biological son of the sun god Surya and Kunti, adoptive son of the charioteer Adhiratha, and king of Anga.
- Mother: Not named in any primary source. The canonical Mahabharata does not name Karna's wife or wives. All attributions assigning Prasena to a particular mother derive from modern literary retellings and have no attestation in primary texts.
- Brothers: Vrishasena (eldest), Chitrasena, Satyasena, Sushena, Shatrunjaya, Dvipata, Banasena (all killed in the Kurukshetra War); Vrishaketu (youngest, sole survivor of the war).
✦ Role in the Kurukshetra War
Prasena fought on the Kaurava side in the Kurukshetra War and was killed by Satyaki — also known as Yuyudhana, the foremost Yadava warrior, grandson of Shini, and a student of Arjuna. The death is narrated in the Karna Parva. In the engagement described, Karna had been fighting effectively against the main Pandava forces including Dhrishtadyumna, Satyaki, the sons of Draupadi, Nakula, and Sahadeva. During this phase, Karna succeeded in destroying Satyaki's four horses. In retaliation or in the course of the same engagement, Satyaki killed Prasena, the son of Karna. Some sources describe Prasena as among the youngest of the eight sons of Karna who participated in the war.
✦ References
- Mahabharata, Karna Parva (Book 8): Narrates the engagement in which Satyaki killed Prasena after Karna had disabled Satyaki's chariot horses; primary source for this death.
- Wisdomlib, "The Death of Karna" (Mahabharata summary): Secondary paraphrase of the Karna Parva passages recording Prasena's death at Satyaki's hands.
- Wikipedia, "Wives of Karna": Establishes the anonymous status of Karna's wives in the canonical text and the modern literary origin of attributed wife-names.