Karṇa (कर्ण)

name of a king of Aṅga (and elder brother by the mother's side of the Pāṇḍu princes, being the son of the god Sūrya by Pṛthā or Kuntī, before her marriage with Pāṇḍu ; afraid of the censure of her relatives, Kuntī deserted the child and exposed it in the river, where it was found by a charioteer named Ādhiratha and nurtured by his wife Radhā ; hence Karna is sometimes called Sūtaputra or Sūtaja, sometimes Rādheya.