Kunti in Mahabharata

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.

Kunti invokes Surya (Sun God) out of curiosity

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 was sad when Karna died

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.

Marriage of Bhima and Hidimba – The Mahabharata

 Hidimba and Bhima

After Pandavas fled from the fire of Lakshagriha, the came to a forest. After walking for hours, they came to the part of the forest where a demon named Hidimb and his sister Hidimba lived.

The forest

Hidimb was a ferocious demon with a great appetite for human flesh. He sensed very soon that Pandavas were available for a great feast. He sent her sister ahead to Pandavas.

Hidimba and Bhima
Hidimba and Bhima

Hidimb sends Hidimba

Pandavas were sleeping and Bhima was awake looking for any troubles. Hidimba comes along and forgets immediately about the work assigned to her. She fells in love with Bhima and she assumed the form of a very beautiful lady, approached Bhima and expressed her desire to marry him. She also revealed her true identity and her brother’s intentions.

Fight between Bhima and Hidimb

When Hidimba did not return for a long time, Hidimb went looking for her and saw her talking to Bhima. “I sent you to kill the human and you are talking to him. I will kill him myself.” Saying so, he attacked Bhima. A fierce fight followed and ended with Bhima killing Hidimb.

fight between hidimb and bhima
fight between hidimb and bhima

Proposal of marriage

After the death of her brother, Hidimba wanted to marry Bhima. Bhima refused and wanted to kill Hidimba as well, but Kunti interfered.

Condition by Kunti

Kunti’s acceded to Hidimba’s proposal, but on one condition. Once She had a child from Bhima, She must allow Bhima to leave her and join Pandavas.

kunti and hidimba
kunti and hidimba

Bhima’s condition

Bhima agrees to marry her, on one condition. “I will spend my time with you during the day, but I must return to my mother and brothers at nightfall. You may join us in our journey.

Marriage of Bhima and Hidimba

Hidimbi happily agrees and they marry immediately. True to his word, Bhima spends every day with Hidimbi. She takes him wherever he desires and they have a wonderful, magical time together. Promptly at dusk, Bhima returns to the rest of the Pandava clan to spend the hours of the night.

Birth of Ghatotkacha

Within a year, Hidimbi gives birth to a huge half-rakshasa son, who is named Ghatotkacha, because his bald head looks like a pot. Ghatotkacha greatly loves the Pandavas and they are enamored with him.

bhima hidimba and ghatotkacha
bhima hidimba and ghatotkacha

Ghatotkacha went on to become a great warrior and an important figure in the Mahabharata war. A master wizard and sorcerer, Lord Krishna gave him a boon that no one in the world would be able to match his sorcery skills except Krishna himself.

How Pandavas saved at Lakshagriha ( The lacquer house)

 Vidura, Pandavas and Lakshagriha

Once, Duryodhana asked his father Dhritrashtra to send the new yuvraj to Varnavat for yearly festival. Dhritrashtra could not refuse Duryodhana and he requested eldest pandava to visit the Varnavat as his representative.

All five pandavas alongwith their mother Kunti reached Varnavat. Meanwhile Duryodhana sent Purochana to build a palace which was highly inflammable which was aptly named as Lakshagriha. The palace was ready in time and pandavas stayed in the same palace.

However, the wise Vidura had sensed something wrong, so he enquired and sent a digger to dig a secret tunnel from Lakshagriha to a river. The tunnel digger reached pandavas and offered to dig a tunnel for pandavas. Thus secretly, the work to save pandavas begun in the house of Lakshagriha.

Vidura in Mahabharata

Vidura in Mahabharata

After the work of tunnel digging was complete, pandavas were looking to find an appropriate day to make their next move. The tunnel has been made carefully and Purochana was not aware that a tunnel exists at Lakshagriha.

pandavas escape from lakshagriha

pandavas escape from lakshagriha

Pandavas invited the people for a feast. The feast was grand and everyone enjoyed them. After the feast everyone left and purochana was also sleeping. Seeing an opportune moment, pandavas set the palace of lac on fire. Then they used the tunnel dug earlier to escape from the burning palace. Bhima carried his mother and all his brothers through the tunnel. Purochana, became a  victime of his own design and was burnt while sleeping.

Lakshagriha

Lakshagriha

On that fateful day, a bhil woman with her five sons also came to the banquet and somehow they also became the victim of the fire.

Thus, by the foresight of Vidura, pandavas escaped from the ill will of Duryodhana and Shakuni. When they reached the end of the tunnel, a boat was waiting for them at the banks of river ganges, thus completing the escape of Pandavas.

Read: Unknown facts about Shakuni