Kunti

In the Mahabharata, the later of the two
great Hindu epics, Kunti is the elder wife
of King Pandu, and the mother of
Yudhishthira, Arjuna, and Bhima.
None of these children are actually
Pandu’s sons; they have been magically
conceived through the effect of a
mantra given to Kunti by the sage
Durvasas. The mantra gives the woman
who recites it the power to call down any
of the gods and conceive a son equal in
power to the god himself.
Kunti receives this mantra before her
marriage. In a moment of youthful
impulsiveness, she recites it while looking at the sun. She is immediately visited
by a shining figure who leaves her with
an equally shining son. Distraught and
desperate at the birth of this illegitimate
child, she puts him in a box and abandons him in the Ganges River. The child
is adopted by the charioteer Adhiratha
and grows up to be the heroic Karna.
Kunti’s other three sons are born
after her marriage, with Pandu’s blessing: Yudhishthira from the god
Dharma, who is righteousness personified; Arjuna from the storm-god
Indra; and Bhima from the wind-god
Vayu. Although these three grow up to
be heroic and kingly figures, they
develop a violent hatred for Karna
because of his unknown parentage.
One of the Mahabharata’s tragic
themes is this bitter rivalry between
men who do not know they are brothers. Their hostility is especially difficult
for Kunti, aware of Karna’s identity. She
knows that the problems are rooted in
her impulsiveness and cowardice. On
the eve of the great Mahabharata war
she goes to Karna, reveals his identity
to him, imploring him to return and
fight with his brothers. Karna refuses,
saying that he has taken a vow to kill
Arjuna, but he will not harm her other
sons. After the war Kunti becomes a
recluse, living in the forest with several
other people of her generation. After
living there for some years, she is killed
in a forest fire.