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In the next sub-ensemble, the first three micro-ensembles reveal that Karna has learnt the reason why Kunti, the mother of kings, has come to him alone, in the battlefield to the Commander-in-Chief of the Kaurava forces. She had a prayer - and for the first time, she addresses him as "Son" instead of "Child" and the partial signifier of "Bhikkhaa Aache" is completed by the command-like entreaty - " Viphala Naa Phiri Yena" - she makes the request as a mother and like the royal mother she imposes her will, saying that she should not return without the grant of her wish. Karna is dumb-founded - "Bhikkhaa, Mora Kaache!" and his surprise is expressed not only in the reversal of the order of words in the sentence, but also by the note of exclamation in the end. And then even before hearing what her prayer is, he pledges that apart from his own manhood and sense of duty he is ready to obey her command. In the English translation, Tagore uses the word "honour" to indicate the notion of "dharma" and qualifies it by relating it to the idea of manhood and the honour of a kshatriya but Karna's "dharma" is rather the sense of duty that makes him pledge that he would fulfil her prayer. He has been overwhelmed by the revelation of Kunti being his mother and his existential situation makes it imperative that he fulfils his duty (as a son here) rather than as a Kshatriya warrior. Again, "Bhikkhaa" is not "boon" and the translation of - "Putra, Bhikkhaa Aache - Viphala Naa Phiri Yena" as "I have a boon to crave" is in complete disjunction to the connotation in the original text. Kunti being the royal mother has her own pride as a "Khartiya Naarii" and she can never "crave" for a "boon" - her prayer or entreaty would rather have the form of a command as she has come to reveal her identity to Karna to impose her will.

The following sub-ensemble is a proposition in comprehension as it indicates the purpose of Kunti who asserts that she has come to take him, and to Karna's question regarding the intended destination, she responds with "in the midst of her thirsting breast, in the lap of her motherliness". The notion of "MaatrikroRe" is missing in the translation and its absence is supported by the phrase "for your love" - the connotation of which is more context-friendly for the western audience.

In the next two sub-ensembles, the semantic thrust of the proposition is extended. Karna still tries to grapple with the fact that Kunti, blessed as she is with five sons, is undoubtedly fortunate, and yet she has approached him, who has no proper ancestral lineage or any family honour and is a small chieftain.What place could Kunti give him? In the English text "pancaputra" has been translated as "five brave kings" whereas it merely means "five sons" and the shift that results even contradicts the narrative of the epic.

The conflict that Karna poses in the translated text is an opposition between his position as a "small chieftain" and that of kings but in the Bengali version, the problem is of finding his position - legitimacy - among the five other sons of Kunti. And therefore in the next sub-ensemble which is an extension of the earlier proposition, Kunti says - "Sarva-Uccabhaage, / Tomaare Vasaava Mora Sarvaputra-Aage - / JyeSTha Putra Tumi!" - "at the highest position, will I place you, before all my sons - you are my first born". But the translation condenses the semantic expanse of the proposition and reduces it to "your place is before all my sons" which has no co-relation to the earlier line - "five brave kings".

In the third sequence, there are four signifying ensembles. The first ensemble can be divided into three sub-units in which, Karna asks Kunti the most fundamental question that indicates his human predicament: "Kon Adhikaara Made / Pravesha Kariva Sethaa?" - "with what right would I enter there?" In the translated text, the next two micro-units are not indicated and yet they are crucial to the narrative as they reflect the essence of Karna's inner constitution. These are propositions, which work together as an infix that later finds an extension. The phrase "JyeSTha Putra Tumi!" of the second sequence finds an evocation in this unit as "JyeSTha" which not only means "first born" or "eldest" but also "VraahmaNa" - it indicates Karna's renunciative capacity which is the only attribute of a true " VraahmaNa" - the one who has conquered all material desires of the physical world. So, Karna says in the second and third micro-units of the first signifying sub-ensemble that those who have been denied the rights to their kingdom, what right did he have to curtail their rights over maternal love which neither follows the mercantile logic of exchange nor can be won by the virtue of physical strength - it is a gift of the divine! By acknowledging the rights of the Pandavas over and above his claim to his mother's love, Karna accepts them as his brothers and thereby fulfils his "dharma" or duty as a son and that too, the duty of the first-born.

Kunti's plea in the next ensemble can be divided into four sub-units. She raises the issue of both his right and the divine ordain to his claim by saying that it is with the permission of the creator ("Vidhaataara Adhikaara") that he had been born to her and therefore, he had the right to return amid all his brothers and his mother with dignity and without any hesitation. In the translated text, the four sub-units are reduced into a single-unit proposition - "your own God-given right to your mother's love".

The third ensemble has eleven sub-units. The first sub-ensemble is a proposition in comprehension. It indicates the sequence of a dream that Kunti's words has evoked. The next sub-unit is an extension of the idea of dream whereby the darkness seems to be permeating the very atmosphere and all nature is hidden while the Bhagirathi flows soundlessly (another name of Ganges, that has mythic overtones - Bhagirath's penance had been successful in bringing the waters of the Ganges to the earth from the heavens and directed her course so that it could be taken towards the place where the sons of King Sagar lay in a heap of ashes due to the curse of Kapil Muni and it is through the purificatory effect of the holy waters that their lives were renewed and hence, the reference to Ganga as Bhagirathi). It is this connotation of the river that is carried forward when Karna feels that his inner being is being taken into some illusory world, a forgotten abode in the dawn of primal consciousness. In the next sub-ensemble, there are several partial signifiers that constitute the highly charged narrative matrix. Like the oldest truth, the words of Kunti orchestrated upon him, holding him enthralled. As if in the state of primal infancy he is engulfed in the darkness of his mother's womb. This whole sub-ensemble had been condensed in the translation and the next five sub-units have been fused into a single-unit proposition - "The gloom of evening ... twilight consciousness". The next proposition in the translated version therefore is a query into the irreality of the state of being he is in and he wants a return to the world of the real and so, asks Kunti to place her right hand on his forehead. But in the Bengali text, he foregoes the urge to delve into the world of the real and it is in extension to the first proposition in the opening sequence that his meditative self requests her - "the loving one" ("Snehamayii") to place her right hand in a momentary caress over his forehead and chin.

The phrase "Shuniyaachi Lokamukhe" has been rendered as "rumour" in English, but the Bengali word merely indicates that he has heard from the people that his mother has abandoned him at birth. The next six micro-units are thus an extension of his dream, which encapsulates the hidden core of his desire - in the depths of his unconscious he had seen his birth-giver ("Jananii") come to see him and he had pleadingly cried in agony - "unveil your face". But as soon as his voice shattered the silence of the night, the dream-image of his mother disappeared from in front of his mental eye and the illusion faded. But how is it that the dream of his sub-conscious had taken a physical shape and appeared as a tangible reality in the form of the Pandava mother that evening hour, in the middle of the battlefield, by the banks of the river Bhagirathi! The exclamation mark at the end of this sub-sequence is denotative of the symbolic state of Karna's inner psychic order that hovers between the twilight threshold of belief and disbelief.

The next sub-unit however brings him back to the physical world and the inner dialogue of the mind is externalized in his address to Kunti as "devi" - as he sees the lights illuminating the Pandava camp and the sound of horses in the Kaurava side - his reverie is finally broken. He comes back to the real world as he realizes that the following morning would herald the beginning of the greatest war. And hence the next proposition in disjunction and he wonders why he had to hear the tone of motherly affection in the address of Arjuna's mother? Why did his name sound like sweet music when uttered by her? Completely taken aback, he realizes that his mind has acquired autonomy of its own and he has an unwitting and quite uncontrollably felt desire to be acknowledged as the brother of the Pandavas.

The translation does not embody the duality that enhances the ambiguousness of Karna's mind and the queries that are raised emanate from the external speaking self rather than from the withdrawn, internal self, the depths of the sub-conscious mind.

In the fourth signifying ensemble Kunti endearingly beckons him, addressing him as 'child' but in the translation, the notion of "delay not, my son!" is introduced, as if Kunti is in a hurry to take him away, although it could never have been her intention. Karna assures her that he would accompany her without questions, without any doubt or fear since she is his mother. His inner consciousness has been stirred by her call, and forgotten to him is the victory of war. False to him is the hatred of war, the strife for glory and the desire for fame in vanquishing the adversary. He agrees to go wherever she takes him along. But in the following sub-unit, when she indicates the opposite bank of the river as her destination he knows that the reality is nothing but an illusion. He therefore requests her to re-affirm that he is truly her son and on the opposite bank there was the hope of finding his mother forever. Her answer makes him contend with the discord that is imminent in the proposition - "Putra Mora" - "O my son!" Ironically it has a jarring effect because the acknowledgement of her identity makes him face the bitterest truth - the ultimate violence of Kunti that robs him even of his anger against those whom he considered his opponents, making his whole endeavour in the battle a meaningless exercise.

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