Kunti, the mother of Pandavas is often looked at as a character which people do not like to follow. Reason being two fold, first, she had a son before she was married and second, she abandoned her son Karna who later faced many hardships in life.
But hold on, do you know, she is one of the Panchkanyas or five ladies, who are revered in Hindu religion. This means that remembering these five ladies in morning takes away all the sins. Also remember that Sita does not belong to Panchkanyas. There must be something about Kunti then. Let us know more about her.
Kunti’s birth
She was born to Shurasena, a yadava king as Pritha ( This is the reason, Arjun is also called Parth). She was later raised by her uncle Kuntibhoja and hence she was renamed as Kunti.
Sage Durvasa and powerful mantra
Once Maharshi Duravasa stayed at Kunti’s place for a month. During this period, Princess Kunti served him like a daughter serve to her father. By seeing respect, dedication, faith, devotion and obedience of princess Kunti, Maharshi Durvasa given her one boon and one mantra.
According to the boon of Maharshi Durvasa, princess Kunti can invoke the god by reciting mantra and get beget a son.
Kunti calls Surya (The Sun God) and birth of Karna
A curious Kunti could not resist the temptation to try out her newly learned mantra, and invoked Surya – the Sun God, and lo and behold, Surya appeared and blessed her with a son, Karna. She had to let go of her son, because she was unmarried at that point of time.
Marriage of Kunti and birth of sons
Kunti chose Pandu as her husband in her swayamvar. Pandu could not have sons because of a curse from Sage Kindam. To overcome this, she uses the Durvasa boon to have sons from various gods. Using this, she had three sons, one from Dharmraja called Yudhishthira, one from Vayu called Bhima and one from Indra called Arjuna. Kunti also shared the mantra to Madri who invoked the celestial physician brothers Ashwini Kumaras who blessed her with two sons Nakul and Sahdeva. As fate would have it, Pandu died under tragic circumstances and Madri chose to depart with him, Kunti bore the responsibility of raising sons of Pandu.
Hardship, Exile and marriage of Pandavas
Thus started the long journey of injustice by Dhritrashtra and Duryodhana on Pandavas. Pandavas were sent to exile by Dhritrashtra. Upon coming from exile, there was a plot to kill them in the house of lacquer. Kunti endured everything. There is also a controversial incident of Pandavas wedding to Draupadi. Kunti is sometimes referred as the reason for Draupadi having five husbands. Nothing could be farther to truth.
Kunti meeting Karna
This is an important event of Mahabharata when she meets her first born, Karna. The love that Kunti had for her sons, the five Pandavas, probably made her realise the unfair treatment that she meted out to her first-born Karna. While one does understand her reasons for giving up a son born out of wedlock, given the social stigma it carried, it is difficult to understand or justify her meeting Karna, on the eve of the great war to divulge the secret of his birth and when he refused to move to the Pandava army, to extract the promise of not killing the Pandava brothers. Karna promised to do so with the exception of sparing the life of Arjuna and asked her to keep the secret intact until the end of the war. This is a blemish which Kunti has to carry.
Death of Karna and Curse of Yudhisthira
She was unconsolable when Karna was killed in the war of Mahabharat. Pandavas came to know that he was their elder brother which make them sad and angry. Yudhisthira cursed Kunti and all women that they shall be unable to keep any secret anymore.
Kunti goes to forest with Gandhari and Dhritrashtra
When after the all-destroying war ends after 18 days and killed all of the Kaurava princes and all sons of Pandavas leaving behind just twelve warriors from both sides. She decides to accompany Dhritrashtra and Gandhari to forest sacrificing the comforts of the palace. She was questioned by her sons on her decision. She explains that the war was fought to get them justice which is achieved. Now she needed to serve penance for all the violence leading to the deaths of so many people.