As the second last day of the war and Karna's day of death dawns, Karna asks Duryodhana to convince king Shalya to be his charioteer since he plans to kill Arjuna that day. The South Indian king considers it below his dignity to be a mere charioteer and starts insulting Karna, who retaliates with words. Duryodhana intervenes, praises both, presses Shalya to guide the chariot for the critical battle. Ultimately Shalya agrees. Since all previous commanders of Duryodhana had been killed, he anoints Karna as the senapati (commander of all his forces) for the first time. Karna and Shalya head into the battlefield together, though they keep insulting each other's abilities and intent, lack mutual devotion and teamwork. Together they reach Arjuna with Krishna. They battle that day, each showing his martial skills of attack as well as his ability to neutralize all weapons that reach their chariot. Then, the wheel of Karna's chariot gets stuck in the ground. Karna steps out of his chariot and is distracted while trying to unstick it. Arjuna – whose own son was killed by the Kauravas a day ago while he was trying to unstick his chariot's wheel – takes this moment to launch the fatal attack. Karna dies. Family life Karna's family life is hardly mentioned in the Mahabharata. In the Udyoga Parva, it is mentioned that he is married to a woman chosen by Adhiratha. In the Stri Parva, Karna's wife is mentioned as the mother of Vrishasena and Sushena. In many recent adaptations of the Mahabharata, Karna is depicted married to two women—Vrushali and Supriya. Contradictory to this, the Tamil play Karna Moksham portray Ponnuruvi as his wife, while the regional Kashidasi Mahabharata states her to be Padmavati. In the modern day version of the Mahabharata, nine sons of Karna are mentioned—Vrishasena, Chitrasena, Satyasena, Sushena, Shatrunjaya, Dvipata, Banasena, Prasena and Vrishaketu. Themes and symbolism Vedic and Indo-European parallelism The Karna-Arjuna story has parallels in the Vedic literature and may have emerged from these more ancient themes. According to McGrath, the Vedic mythology is loaded with the legendary and symbolism-filled conflict between Surya (sun) and Indra (clouds, thunder, rain). Indra cripples Surya in the Vedic mythology by detaching his wheel, while Arjuna kills Karna while he tries to fix the wheel that is stuck in the ground. As another example of parallels, Surya too has a birth mother (Night) who abandons