Radha (Mahābhārata)

Radha is the foster mother of Karna in the Mahābhārata, who is not to be confused with goddess Radha. This is the wife of the charioteer Adhiratha, who found an abandoned newborn boy, whom he named Radhey. Adiratha and Radha became his foster parents. Hence, and because Karna as an adult expressly stated his loyalty to his commoner foster mother, as opposed to his royal birth mother Kunti who had abandoned him soon after he was born, he is sometimes called Radheya, meaning Radha's son. She was also the mother of Shon. It was Guru Dronacharya who gave him the name karna.