In one story, Karna was an asura blessed with a thousand armours called Sahasrakavacha. To destroy each armour, a warrior had to acquire special powers by meditating for a thousand years. Even with these powers, destroying the armour would need a thousand years. So Nara and Narayana, twin sages, avatars of Vishnu, attacked this asura simultaneously—while one meditated, the other fought, taking turns to acquire the power and to destroy the armour. By the time they had destroyed all but one of the thousand armours, the world came to an end. But the world was reborn; the asura was reborn as
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