One popular belief among many people is that Dronacharya refused to take Karna as his student because of him belonging to the Suta caste. This point is often used to propagate Karna’s victim narrative. What does Ved Vyas’s Mahabharat say about this?

It is clear from above mentioned Shloka that Karna was among the students of Dronacharya and in fact he used to gang up with Duryodhana to harass Pandava brothers.

Later while talking about the Gurudakshina war, when all the students of Dronacharya attack Panchal to arrest Drupad and present the King of Panchal as a prisoner in front of Guru Drona, Karna fought alongside Kaurava brothers.  

Based on these it is safe to conclude that Drona did not refuse to teach Karna because of his caste, in fact Karna did study in Drona’s academy.

This is what Karna told Suryadev.

Following Shlokas in Kundalaharan Parva again establish this fact that Karna was in fact as Student of Drona and was not refused education because of his caste.

Later when Narad Muni narrated Karna’s lifestory to Yudhishthir, this is what he had to say.

It is safe to say that Dronacharya did not refuse to take Karna as his student because of his caste, in fact Karna was a student of Dronacharya. However Drona did refuse to teach him Brahmastra because Dronacharya did not appreciate the reason Karna gave for learning the divine weapon i.e. “to fight Arjuna.” There seems to be nothing wrong about Drona’s actions here considering Arjuna’s uncle was the primary source of funding for his academy. This is when Karna left Drona’s academy and approached Bhagwan Parshuram.

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