Adhiratha is Karna's foster father in the Mahabharata, the ancient Hindu epic.
- Karna is born when his mother, Kunti, recites an unique mantra given to her by the sage Durvasas, which grants a woman the ability to conceive and carry godly offspring.
- Kunti employs the chant rashly to summon the Sun, through whom she conceives and bears Karna. She puts the kid in a box and abandons him in the Ganges in her distress at becoming a mother unexpectedly—she is still unmarried and worried about what others would think.
- Adhiratha discovers the kid while bathing (snana) in the Ganges, and since he and his wife are childless, they raise the boy as their own.
The tale of Adhiratha has a lot of intriguing elements.
- Despite his low social position, he becomes the country's monarch.
- He hails from a social group where driving chariots is a customary profession.
- This contradiction may be seen in the epic's acknowledgement that the hierarchical, occupationally oriented societal model is an idealistic projection, not necessarily the truth.
- It may also be claimed that Adhiratha and the nation are doomed since he is not performing his own religious obligation (dharma) but is usurping the ruling class's.
Karna has struggled for much of his life with the realities of his family's poor social standing and the mystery surrounding his birth.
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