Kuntī

Kuntī

Bhīma has other meanings too: see all meanings of Bhīma. Śūrasena has other meanings too: see all meanings of Śūrasena. Bhīmasena has other meanings too: see all meanings of Bhīmasena. Dharmarāja has other meanings too: see all meanings of Dharmarāja.

Kuntī was born as Pṛthā and took the name Kuntī after Kuntibhoja, the king who adopted her. She was the wife of King Pāṇḍu of Hastināpura. Through a mantra given to her by the ṛshi Durvāsa, she became the mother of Yudhishṭhira, Bhīma and Arjuna, born of the devas Dharma, Vāyu and Indra. Before her marriage she was also the mother of Karṇa, whose father was Sūrya. She stood by the Pāṇḍavas through exile, forest life and war. She was known for her steady devotion to Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa keeps her stotra (hymn of praise) to Kṛshṇa as he was about to go back to Dvārakā after the war. In it she asks for calamities again and again, so that she may always have a reason to see him. She reached jīvanmukti (liberation while still living) when she heard of Kṛshṇa’s departure from the world.

The Agni Purāṇa, in the royal lines that Agni Deva tells to Vasishṭha Maharshi, names her Pṛthā, the daughter of Śūra of the Yadu vaṃśa and sister of Vasudeva, and says that as the wife of Pāṇḍu she had the other name Kuntī. To her were born Yudhishṭhira, Bhīmasena and Arjuna from the aṃśas (portions) of Yama, Vāyu and Indra. Her son Karṇa, born before her marriage, took refuge with Duryodhana. She escaped the burning house of lac with her five sons, and in Yudhishṭhira’s reign she went to the forest with Dhṛtarāshṭra and Gāndhārī.

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa tells of her across many chapters. Pṛthā, the eldest daughter of Śūra, was given to his childless friend Kunti; she pleased Durvāsa Maharshi by her service, and her son born of Sūrya she left, with great difficulty, in the waters of a river. Married to Pāṇḍu, she bore Dharmarāja, Bhīma and Arjuna of Yama, Vāyu and Indra, and after Pāṇḍu was gone she raised the twins of Mādrī as her own and bore many hardships for her children. Again and again she meets Śrī Kṛshṇa, her brother’s son: she cries out to him through Akrūra, “Protect me”, embraces him at Indraprastha, meets her own family again at Samantapañcaka, and, after the war, sings the stotra in which she asks that dangers come always, so that she may always have his darśana. When she heard from Arjuna that Śrī Kṛshṇa had withdrawn his avatāra, she merged her mind in him by single-pointed bhakti.

Birth and adoption

Kuntī was born as Pṛthā, the daughter of Śūra (also named Śūrasena) of the Yādava clan. Śūra had promised his firstborn child to his cousin Kuntibhoja, who had no children. When Pṛthā was born, Śūra gave her in adoption. Kuntibhoja raised her with great love as his own daughter, and she took the name Kuntī after him.

In her youth Kuntibhoja made Kuntī the servant of the visiting ṛshi Durvāsa, who was known to be hard to please. Kuntī served him perfectly through his whole stay. Durvāsa was pleased with her care. He gave her a mantra, a formula by which she could call any deva she chose and have a divine son by him. (Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Sambhava Parva)

Per Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Śuka tells Parīkshit that Śūra had ten sons, Vasudeva the first, and five daughters: Pṛthā, Śrutadevā, Śrutakīrti, Śrutaśravā and Rājādhidevī. Śūra had a friend named Kunti who had no children, and Śūra gave Pṛthā to him as a foster-daughter; from then on the text calls her Kuntī. She pleased Durvāsa Maharshi greatly by her service and received from him an upāsanā, a vidyā for calling the devatās. When Arjuna came back from Dvārakā, Yudhishṭhira asked him whether “our mother’s father, the venerable Śūrasena” was well.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 14; Skandha 9, Chapter 24

The birth of Karṇa

Kuntī was still unmarried. Curious, she tested the mantra and called Sūrya, the deva of the sun. Sūrya appeared. He said that the mantra could not be taken back once it was spoken, and that it had to bear fruit. He promised to give back her virginity afterwards. From this union Karṇa was born. He came with natural golden armour (kavaca) and earrings (kuṇḍala), signs of his divine birth. Kuntī could not keep the child as an unmarried girl. She placed him in a sealed basket and set it afloat on the river. Adhiratha and Rādhā found him and raised him as their son. (Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Sambhava Parva)

The account in the Vana Parva

The Kuṇḍalahāra Parva of the Vana Parva (Chapters 303–310) tells the story more fully. While Kuntī was a girl at the court of Kuntibhoja, a great brāhmaṇa came as a guest and stayed a full year. Her father appointed her to attend to him in person. She served him with complete devotion for the whole year, looking after his food, his comfort and all his needs, without a single lapse. Pleased with her service, the brāhmaṇa gave her a mantra from the Atharva tradition as his gift. With it she could call any deva she chose and have a son by him. Then he left. The Ādi Parva names this ṛshi as Durvāsa.

Kuntī was not yet married. She turned the mantra over in her mind with wonder and curiosity. One morning she watched the rising sun and wished to test whether the mantra worked. She called Sūrya. He came before her in his full divine form, blazing and overwhelming. The power she had set in motion startled her, and she asked him to go back. Sūrya said this was not possible. The mantra had been spoken with full intent and could not be recalled. It must bear its fruit. He promised her that her kanyātva (maidenhood) would be kept after the birth and that no dishonour would come to her.

Kuntī set a condition. The son born of this union should have a natural kavaca joined to his body and kuṇḍalas in his ears, the marks of divine invulnerability. Sūrya agreed and went away. Karṇa was born, armoured from birth, wearing the divine earrings and shining with the tejas (radiance) of his father.

Kuntī could not keep the child as an unmarried girl without bringing shame on herself and her family. She laid the infant in a sealed wooden chest lined with cloth and set it afloat on the Aśvanadi. The chest went from the Aśvanadi into the Carmaṇvatī, then into the Yamunā, and at last onto the Gaṅgā. It carried the child south to Campāpura in Aṅgadeśa. There Adhiratha, a charioteer in the service of the Kuru household, and his wife Rādhā had no children. They found the basket on the river bank. They took the golden-armoured child as their own son with great joy and named him Vāsusheṇa, “the one born with wealth”. He grew up knowing only them as his parents, the son of a charioteer, with the secret of his divine birth in his body. (Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 303–310)

The account in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa

To test the power of Durvāsa‘s vidyā, Kuntī called the most pure Sūrya. In that very moment Sūryadeva came and stood before her. Greatly amazed, she said: “O Sūryadeva! I used the vidyā only to gain faith in it. Forgive me and go.” Sūryadeva said: “O Kuntīdevī! My darśana will not be in vain. I will give you a son. O beautiful one, I will bless you so that no fault comes to your maidenhood.” He placed the garbha (the child) in her and went to Sūryaloka, and at once a boy was born like a second Sūrya. Afraid of the world, she, with great difficulty, left the boy in the waters of a river.

In the line of Aṅga, Śuka tells that Adhiratha had no children. Kuntī Devī, while still a maiden, had borne a child, Karṇa, placed him in a box and let it go, and Adhiratha, roaming on the bank of the Gaṅgā, took up the child and made him his son.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapters 23–24

Marriage to Pāṇḍu and life in the forest

Kuntī was given in marriage to Pāṇḍu, king of Hastināpura. Pāṇḍu received the śāpa (curse) of Kiṃdama: he would die if he came near any woman with desire. So he went to live in the forest. Kuntī went with him, together with his second wife Mādrī. She chose forest life over the comfort of the palace.

In the forest Pāṇḍu asked Kuntī to call the devas with Durvāsa‘s mantra, so that he could keep the duty of leaving a line of children. Kuntī called three devas:

She then gave the mantra to Mādrī. Through it Nakula and Sahadeva were born of the Aśvins. (Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Sambhava Parva)

Per Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Pāṇḍu, Parīkshit‘s great-grandfather, one who showed valour for the sake of truth, married Kuntī. Because of a śāpa, union with a woman was forbidden to Pāṇḍu. In Kuntī, from Yama Dharmarāja, Vāyu Deva and Indra, in that order, Dharmarāja, Bhīma and Arjuna were born, all mahārathas; in Mādrī, from the Aśvinī Kumāras, Nakula and Sahadeva were born.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapters 22, 24

Raising her sons after Pāṇḍu: Bhāgavata Purāṇa

When Vidura met Uddhava and asked after his kin, he spoke of Kuntī: she herself raised the twins Nakula and Sahadeva, and her own sons, Dharmarāja, Bhīma and Arjuna, guarded the two as eyelids guard the eye. “That Kuntī keeps her life for the sake of the children, even though Pāṇḍu Mahārāja, best of rājarshis, is gone, is greatly to be praised.”

After the war, as Bhīshma lay waiting for his time, he said to the Pāṇḍavas: “When Pāṇḍu Mahārāja died, my daughter-in-law Kuntī was the mother of small children. With her children, and for their sake, she suffered many hardships many times.”

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 9; Skandha 3, Chapter 1

Sabhā Parva: farewell and staying at Hastināpura

After the second dice game, the Pāṇḍavas got ready to leave for thirteen years of exile. In the Anudyūta Parva, Draupadī came to Kuntī for a formal farewell before leaving Hastināpura. Their talk in Chapter 79 is one of the most moving passages of the Sabhā Parva. Kuntī had borne every danger the Pāṇḍavas had met, including poison, the lac-house fire and years in the forest. Now her sons were leaving for exile from a court that had shamed them.

Kuntī stayed at Hastināpura. She did not go with the Pāṇḍavas into the forest. Vidura gave her shelter in his own house, so that she would not be left without protection in the court of Dhṛtarāshṭra after all that had happened. She sent her sons and her daughter-in-law into the forest with her blessing and her grief. (Mahābhārata, Sabhā Parva, Anudyūta Parva, Chapter 79)

Kuntī and Kṛshṇa at Hastināpura: Udyoga Parva

Kṛshṇa came to Hastināpura as the Pāṇḍavas‘ envoy. Before the formal assembly he visited Kuntī privately. This meeting is one of the most moving scenes of the Udyoga Parva. Kuntī spoke of all that her sons had borne: the years of exile, the shame of the dice game, the vastraharaṇa (the pulling at the clothes) of Draupadī, and the long weight of injustice on good men. She spoke as a mother who had watched her sons suffer without being able to step in, or even to name all her children openly.

Most painfully, she spoke of Karṇa. He was her firstborn, born before her marriage to Pāṇḍu, given away as an infant and raised by others. Karṇa now stood on the opposite side of the coming war. She could not name him in public as her son, and he did not know her as his mother. Her grief over this divided family, with sons set against her son, was spoken to Kṛshṇa with great restraint and great pain.

She did not ask Kṛshṇa to bring peace at any price. She asked that her sons get back their rightful inheritance with their honour whole. She gave Kṛshṇa a message to carry back to Yudhishṭhira, Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva, a mother’s message of love and strength. (Mahābhārata, Udyoga Parva, Chapter 90)

Kuntī’s plea through Akrūra: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10

Śrī Kṛshṇa had heard that after King Pāṇḍu‘s death, Dhṛtarāshṭra had brought his grieving children and their mother Kuntī to Hastināpura, where they now lived, and that Dhṛtarāshṭra, under the sway of his wicked sons, did not look on the Pāṇḍavas as equal to his own. So he sent Akrūra to find out how they fared.

Akrūra came to Hastināpura as Kṛshṇa‘s messenger to learn how the Pāṇḍavas were. Kuntī came to him privately with tears in her eyes. She asked whether Kṛshṇa remembered her and her sons. Then her grief broke out. She called herself a doe surrounded by wolves, with sons who had lost their father and were in danger. She made a prayer to Kṛshṇa through Akrūra.

Śuka tells that at Hastināpura Akrūra saw Dhṛtarāshṭra, Bhīshma, Vidura and Kuntī, and stayed some months. Kuntī and Vidura told him all that Duryodhana and the other sons of Dhṛtarāshṭra had plotted against the Pāṇḍavas, giving them poison and other schemes. Kuntī went to Akrūra, her brother, remembering her father’s house, her eyes full of tears: “O Priyadarśana! Do my parents, my brothers, my sisters, my brothers’ sons, Devakī and the other women of the family, and my friends still remember us? Do Śrī Kṛshṇa, son of my brother Vasudeva, who has the greatest love for his devotees, and lotus-eyed Balarāma remember my sons, the sons of their father’s sister? Like a doe among wolves I am caught among enemies. Will he comfort me and my fatherless sons with consoling words?” Then she turned to Śrī Kṛshṇa himself: “O Śrī Kṛshṇa! O Śrī Kṛshṇa! You are Mahāyogī, the ātmā of all beings, the protector of the world. O Govinda! Suffering with my children, I have taken refuge in you. Protect me. Human beings fear saṃsāra, bound up with death; I see no protection for them but your lotus feet, which grant moksha, for you are Īśvara. You are Parabrahma, untouched by the guṇas, Paramātmā, master of the power of māyā, a mass of pure knowledge. I take refuge in you.” So, Śuka tells Parīkshit, his grandfather’s mother remembered her own people and Śrī Kṛshṇa, Jagannātha, and wept aloud.

She called him the Mahāyogin, the ātmā (self) of all creation, and Govinda. She said: “O Govinda, I am sinking in this ocean of sorrow with my children. I see no other refuge than your lotus feet. Protect us.” She named him the master of the māyā-śakti (power of illusion) and the all-knowing ruler who governs the worlds.

Akrūra and Vidura comforted her. Kuntī’s happiness was Akrūra’s happiness and her grief his grief, and with the renowned Vidura he consoled her by speaking of the greatness of the devatās who were the cause of her sons’ births. They spoke of the strength of the Pāṇḍava line and told her that Bhagavān Kṛshṇa’s plan is never without purpose. On his return to Mathurā, Akrūra told Kṛshṇa the whole situation, including Kuntī’s prayer. (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapters 48–49)

With Śrī Kṛshṇa at Indraprastha and Samantapañcaka: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10

Śrī Kṛshṇa knew that the Pāṇḍavas had not been burnt in the house of lac, but on hearing the common report that they had been burnt together with Kuntī, he went with Balarāma to the Kuru country for the condolence visit fitting to the family.

When Śrī Kṛshṇa came to the Pāṇḍavas at Indraprastha, he met Kuntī and bowed to her. With overflowing love, her eyes filled with tears, she embraced him and asked after their relatives, and he asked after her, his father’s sister, and after Draupadī, her daughter-in-law. Remembering her many hardships, her voice grew hoarse with love, and she said to him: “O Śrī Kṛshṇa! When you remembered us, your relatives, and sent my brother Akrūra, from that moment we were well. You became our nātha (protector). You are the well-wisher of the world, the ātmā itself. You have no delusion of ‘mine’ and ‘others’; even so, you dwell at all times in the hearts of those who remember you and remove their distress.”

When Balarāma came to Hastināpura, the Kauravas said in their pride: “Through the marriage of Kuntī we came into relation with these Yādavas. We ate with them, sat with them, slept with them. We ourselves gave them the royal throne.”

When Śrī Kṛshṇa came to Indraprastha for the Rājasūya, Kuntī, with her daughter-in-law Draupadī, saw her brother’s son and rejoiced. She rose from her couch and embraced Śrī Kṛshṇa, lord of the three worlds, and he bowed to her, his father’s sister, and to the wives of the elders. Prompted by Kuntī, Draupadī honoured all of Śrī Kṛshṇa’s wives and the other women who had come with garments, flower garlands, ornaments and tāmbūla. After the Rājasūya, Śrī Kṛshṇa took leave of the elders of the Kuru line, the maharshis, the Pāṇḍavas and Kuntī, and set out for Dvārakā.

At the total eclipse of the sun, the Yādavas and the Kurus met at the kshetra of Samantapañcaka. Kuntī saw her brothers, Vasudeva and the others, her sisters, Śrutadevī and the others, their sons, Balarāma and the others, her parents, Śūra and the others, and her brothers’ wives, Devakī and the others. She talked lovingly with them and let go of the troubles in her heart. To Vasudeva she said: “Elder brother! I think I am not one who has done puṇya, for though you are good people, you did not remember me even in my calamities. When daiva (fate) is against a person, even friends, kinsmen, sons, brothers, mother and father forget that person.” Vasudeva answered: “We are humans, playthings in the hand of daiva. Do not blame us. O sister, harassed by Kaṃsa we fled in many directions; only now has daiva brought us back to our own place.” Kuntī was among those astonished at the sight of Śrī Kṛshṇa’s form and his wives.

There Kuntī, Gāndhārī, Draupadī, the wives of other kings and the gopīs heard of the love of total self-offering that Śrī Kṛshṇa’s wives have for him, were filled with wonder, and their eyes filled with tears. When the gathering ended, Kuntī, with Dhṛtarāshṭra, Vidura, her sons, Bhīshma, Droṇa, Nārada and Vyāsa, embraced the Yādavas and parted from them only with difficulty, in the pain of separation.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapters 57–58, 68, 71, 77, 82, 84

On the battlefield after the war: Strī Parva

In the Strī Parva, Kuntī went with Yudhishṭhira and the Pāṇḍavas to the battlefield of Kurukshetra, where the women of the Kuru line had gathered to mourn their dead. She walked among the fallen, among countless other widows and mothers. The text records her grief as a mother looking over a field where her sons had won. The cost was the lives of men she had known, men who had grown up around her, and, most painfully, the life of the one son she had given away.

The bodies were searched, and Karṇa‘s body was found. It could not be mistaken, because of the golden armour fixed to his body. Kuntī came to him. Before Yudhishṭhira and the others she told the secret she had carried through the whole war and all the years before it. Karṇa was her firstborn, the son of Sūrya, born before her marriage to Pāṇḍu and given away as an infant on the river. As her firstborn, Karṇa was the eldest of the brothers, and he had died on the other side of the war. Yudhishṭhira was filled with grief and anger, because he had been kept from knowing his eldest brother all his life. This became one of his deepest wounds. He gave a śāpa (curse) on all women: from then on no woman would be able to keep a secret. The text records it as a reply born of grief and anger.

Kuntī made the jalapradāna (the offering of water) for Karṇa, naming him her son before the Gaṅgā. (Mahābhārata, Strī Parva, Chapters 1–15)

At the death of Bhīshma

Bhīshma lay on the śaraśayyā (bed of arrows) for fifty-eight nights, until Uttarāyaṇa came. Kuntī went with Yudhishṭhira and the Kuru household from Hastināpura to Kurukshetra. She was present for his last teachings and his departure by yoga, before the funeral rites at the Gaṅgā. (Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīshma Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapter 167)

Karṇa’s śrāddha: Āśramavāsika Parva

Dhṛtarāshṭra asked to perform śrāddha for Bhīshma, Droṇa, Somadatta and Bāhlīka before going to the forest. Bhīma then told Arjuna that Karṇa‘s śrāddha would be Kuntī’s own to perform. His words were: “Kuntī will do it for Karṇa; this Kaurava king need not give.” In this parva it is plain that the rites for her firstborn belonged to her and not to Dhṛtarāshṭra. (Mahābhārata, Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapter 11)

Consoling Subhadrā and the plea for Parīkshit: Aśvamedhika Parva

Subhadrā heard of Abhimanyu‘s death when she overheard Kṛshṇa‘s report to Vāsudeva at Dvārakā. She fell down in grief. Kuntī comforted her: “O Yadunandinī! The boy loved by Vāsudeva, Sātyaki and his father has fallen in battle by the decree of time. Do not grieve. Your son has reached the highest state. Take good care of Uttarā. She is with child, and she of good nature will soon bear him a son.” Kuntī then arranged Abhimanyu‘s śrāddha and, together with Subhadrā, gave many gifts to brāhmaṇas (Chapter 61).

Later Uttarā’s child was born lifeless, struck by the brahmāstra of Aśvatthāmā. Kuntī ran to Kṛshṇa, weeping, and appealed to him directly. She reminded him of his own vow, made when the weapon was loosed: “Vāsudeva! Mahābāhu! … Your nephew’s son has been born dead, struck by the weapon of Aśvatthāmā. Revive him! … Here he lies, dead. Look at him. Uttarā, Subhadrā, Draupadī and I all look to you. The lives of Yudhishṭhira, Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva now rest on you” (Chapter 66). Uttarā fell down with the dead infant in her arms, and Kuntī cried out again. All the Bhārata women wept together (Chapter 69). Then Kṛshṇa’s satyakriyā (act of truth) revived the child, who was named Parīkshit. (Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapters 61, 66, 69)

The Kuntī Stotra

Kṛshṇa was about to return to Dvārakā after finishing his work for the Pāṇḍavas. He had comforted the bereaved on the Gaṅgā after the war, overseen three aśvamedha yajñas for Yudhishṭhira, and protected the unborn child of Uttarā. Kuntī came to say farewell. In front of him she offered a stotra that the Bhāgavata has kept as one of its deepest and most personal prayers.

Sūta tells Śaunaka that after the war the Pāṇḍavas, with Śrī Kṛshṇa, went to the Gaṅgā to give water offerings to their dead, and Kuntī sat there grieving with Gāndhārī and Draupadī. As Śrī Kṛshṇa was about to leave, Uttarā ran to him for refuge from the blazing arrow of Aśvatthāmā’s brahmāstra, and he protected the child in her womb and the Pāṇḍavas with his divine Sudarśana cakra. Then Kuntī the pativratā (wife true to her husband), with the Pāṇḍavas and Draupadī, freed from the fire of the brahmāstra, spoke to him as he stood ready to set out.

She called him:

  • Ādi-Nārāyaṇa, the first Nārāyaṇa.
  • The ruler of all the worlds.
  • The one who is beyond māyā and so cannot be seen by ordinary senses. She said: “Just as a covered fire is not seen directly, you who are covered by māyā cannot be known through the senses, though you are within and outside all beings.”
  • The one who is seen only in the heart by the pure of mind. She said: “Great ṛshis who have mastered samyag-darśana (right vision) see you only through bhaktiyoga. How then can we women know your true nature?”
  • The imperishable, covered by the curtain of māyā and not reached by perception and the other means of knowing; as a fool does not know an actor in costume, one deluded by the body does not know him.
  • The dear child of Devakī and Vasudeva, who grew up in the house of Nanda Gopa tending the cows.
  • The one with a lotus at the navel, a garland of lotuses, eyes like lotuses and the marks of the lotus on his soles.
  • Parameśvara, lord of the senses, who freed Devakī, long imprisoned by the wicked Kaṃsa, and has so many times brought her and her sons through danger.

She spoke of the times Kṛshṇa had kept them safe:

  • The poison fed to Bhīma.
  • The fire of the lac house at Vāraṇāvata.
  • The meetings with Hiḍimba and other rākshasas.
  • The assembly in the court of Dhṛtarāshṭra, with the vastraharaṇa of Draupadī.
  • The hardships of the twelve years of forest exile.
  • Safety from Karṇa and other great warriors in the war.
  • The brahmāstra of Aśvatthāmā.

Her best-known verse is: “O Govinda! May calamities come to us again and again! For when calamities come, we see your face, and one who has seen your face does not need to see this saṃsāra any longer.”

She said that he gives darśana even to the poor, while one proud of high birth, power, learning and wealth is not fit even to call on him.

She bowed to him as the one who is rich in love for the poor (daridrānāṃ tvaṃ hi sampat), who is untouched by any guṇa of prakṛti, who delights only in his own svarūpa (true nature), and who gives moksha (muktida). She went on in the order of the text:

  • He is Kāla, without beginning or end, all-pervading, moving equally in all beings.
  • He performs līlās imitating men; no one knows his intent; none is dear or hateful to him.
  • The ātmā of the universe has no birth and no doership; his births among animals, men, ṛshis and water-beings (Varāha, Śrī Rāma, Vāmana and Matsya, as the text’s brackets give them) are only līlā.
  • She is enchanted by the child who, when Yaśodā came with a rope after he broke the pot of milk, stood with tears and kājal on his cheeks, face bent down, as if afraid: “In truth, fear itself is afraid of you!”
  • Some say he was born in the line of Yadu to spread Yadu’s fame, as the sandal tree appears on the Malaya mountain; others, that Devakī and Vasudeva asked for him as their son in a former birth; others, that Brahmā prayed to him to lessen the burden of the earth; and some, that he came to perform līlās to be heard and remembered by those caught in the wheel of saṃsāra.
  • Those who daily hear, sing, recite and remember his deeds soon see his lotus feet, which end the chain of births.
  • “Do you wish today to leave us, your friends, who have no refuge but your lotus feet? Without the jīva, what are the senses? Without your darśana, what existence would we, the Yadus and the Pāṇḍavas, have?”
  • O Gadādhara, the Kuru land shines with the lotus-marked prints of your feet and will lose its beauty when you go; these kingdoms flourish with crops and fruit by the grace of your glance.
  • O Jagannāyaka, ground of the world of name and form, cut my firm attachment to the Pāṇḍavas and the Yādavas.
  • O Yadupati, may my buddhi have unbroken love for you, as the stream of the Gaṅgā flows ceaselessly into the ocean.
  • Namaskāra to Śrī Kṛshṇa, friend of Arjuna, best of the Yadus, Govinda, who came down to remove the distress of cows, brāhmaṇas and devatās, lord of yogīs, Jagadguru.

When Kuntī had praised his glory in sweet words, Śrī Kṛshṇa smiled gently, as though enchanting her with his māyā, and said “So be it”. He took leave of her and, entering Hastināpura, of Subhadrā and the others. (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 8)

At Śrī Kṛshṇa’s departure and Vidura’s return

Śrī Kṛshṇa stayed some months in Hastināpura. When at last he mounted his chariot for Dvārakā, Subhadrā, Draupadī, Kuntī, Uttarā, Gāndhārī, Dhṛtarāshṭra, Yuyutsu, Kṛpācārya, Nakula and Sahadeva, Bhīma, Dhaumya and women such as Satyavatī lost consciousness, unable to bear separation from Śrī Hari, the bearer of the Śārṅga bow.

Later, when Vidura came back to Hastināpura from his tīrtha-yātrā, Kuntī came out with Dharmarāja and his brothers, Dhṛtarāshṭra, Yuyutsu, Sañjaya and the other kin to meet him with great joy, as if life itself had come back.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapters 10, 13

Attaining moksha

Arjuna came back from Dvārakā with the sad news of the destruction of the Yādavas and Kṛshṇa‘s departure from the world. Kuntī heard it. She then fixed her mind wholly on Bhagavān Kṛshṇa in ananyabhakti (devotion to him alone), reached jīvanmukti and dropped her body. The Bhāgavata says: “Kuntī, hearing from Arjuna of Kṛshṇa’s return to his dhāma (abode), merged her mind in Bhagavān Kṛshṇa with ananyabhakti and became jīvanmuktā.” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 15)

Reunited with Pāṇḍu: Svargārohaṇa Parva

Yudhishṭhira saw the blessed in their divine stations. Indra showed him Pāṇḍu living with both his wives, Kuntī and Mādrī. They were travelling by vimāna (a flying chariot) to wait upon Indra. The grief Yudhishṭhira still carried for Karṇa is recalled in the same parva. It was kindled by the words his mother had spoken at the time of the tarpaṇa (water offering). In the final account of the fates of the heroes, told by Sauti (Ugraśravā), Kuntī, together with Pāṇḍu and Mādrī, reached the bhavana (mansion) of Mahendra when her puṇya was used up. (Mahābhārata, Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapters 2, 4–5)

Per Agni Purāṇa

Daughter of Śūra, wife of Pāṇḍu

Agni Deva tells the Yadu vaṃśa to Vasishṭha Maharshi. To Śūra were born sons beginning with Vasudeva, and a daughter, Pṛthā. Pṛthā was the wife of King Pāṇḍu, and she had the other name Kuntī. To Pṛthā were born Yudhishṭhira from the aṃśa of Yama, Bhīmasena from the aṃśa of Vāyu, and Arjuna from the aṃśa of Indra. To Mādrī, Pāṇḍu’s other wife, were born Nakula and Sahadeva. Her brother Vasudeva became the father of Balarāma and Śrī Kṛshṇa, and the last child born in that house was Subhadrā.

In the Kuru vaṃśa Agni Deva says again that to Kuntī, wife of Pāṇḍu, were born Yudhishṭhira, Bhīma and Arjuna, and to Mādrī, Nakula and Sahadeva, and that these five Pāṇḍavas were born from the aṃśas of the devas. Draupadī was the wife of the five, and her sons were Kuntī’s grandsons: Prativindhya, son of Yudhishṭhira; Śrutasoma, son of Bhīmasena; and Śrutakīrti, son of Arjuna. Arjuna’s son by Subhadrā was Abhimanyu, and Abhimanyu‘s son was Parīkshit.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 275, 278

In the Bhārata account

Agni Deva begins the Bhārata with the words: “I will tell the Bhārata, which is the mark of Kṛshṇa‘s greatness. Bhagavān Vishṇu, making the Pāṇḍavas the instrument, removed the burden of the earth.” In that account, Pāṇḍu‘s wife Kuntī bore Yudhishṭhira from Yama-Dharmarāja, Bhīma from Vāyu-deva and Arjuna from Devendra, and Mādrī bore Nakula and Sahadeva from the Aśvinī devatās. At the Śataśṛṅga āśrama Pāṇḍu received a ṛshi’s śāpa (curse) and died through union with Mādrī, and Mādrī followed him. Karṇa, who had been born to Kuntī while she was unmarried, took refuge with Duryodhana.

Then, by fate, enmity arose between the Kurus and the Pāṇḍavas. The evil-minded Duryodhana burned the Pāṇḍavas in a house of lac, but the five Pāṇḍavas escaped from the burning house together with their mother. They lived in the town of Ekacakra dressed as munis, in a brāhmaṇa’s house, and went on to the Pāñcāla land, where they won Draupadī at her svayaṃvara.

After the war, while Yudhishṭhira was ruling, Dhṛtarāshṭra, Gāndhārī and Kuntī went to the forest and moved from one āśrama to another. Agni Deva closes the Bhārata with its phalaśruti: those who read it go to svarga.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 13, 15

Per Brahma Purāṇa

Daughter of Śūra, raised by King Kunti

Sūta tells the munis that Devamīḍha begot Śūra on Asiknī, and that Śūra had ten sons, Vasudeva Ānakadundubhi the first, and five daughters, wives of heroes: Pṛthukīrti, Pṛthā, Śrutadevā, Śrutaśravā and Rājādhidevī. King Kunti raised Pṛthā as his daughter, and King Pāṇḍu married her. In her, Yama himself was born as Dharmarāja, Yudhishṭhira, the knower of dharma. From Vāyu, Bhīmasena was born, and from Indra was born Dhanañjaya, the unrivalled chariot-warrior, valiant as Indra.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 14

Śrī Kṛshṇa’s promise to Indra

Vyāsa tells the munis that after the lifting of Govardhana, Indra came to Śrī Kṛshṇa, performed his abhisheka, and asked him to protect Arjuna, born on earth from Indra’s own aṃśa. Śrī Kṛshṇa promised to protect Arjuna as long as he was on the earth, and said: “For Arjuna’s sake, after the Bhārata war, I will hand back to Kuntī Yudhishṭhira and the others, safe and well.”

At the end, when Śrī Kṛshṇa was about to leave the world, he told Dāruka: “Go and tell Arjuna, Kuntī’s son, these words of mine: ‘You must protect my wives as far as your strength allows.'”

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 188, 210

Sources

  • Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapters 8–10, 13–15; Skandha 3, Chapter 1; Skandha 9, Chapters 22–24; Skandha 10, Chapters 48–49, 57–58, 68, 71, 77, 82, 84
  • Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Sambhava Parva, Chapters 111–125
  • Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Chapters 141–221
  • Mahābhārata, Sabhā Parva, Anudyūta Parva, Chapter 79
  • Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapters 303–310
  • Mahābhārata, Udyoga Parva, Chapter 90
  • Mahābhārata, Strī Parva, Chapters 1–15
  • Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīshma Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapter 167
  • Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapters 61, 66, 69
  • Mahābhārata, Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapter 11
  • Mahābhārata, Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapters 15–20, 24
  • Mahābhārata, Āśramavāsika Parva, Chapters 29–30, 37–39
  • Mahābhārata, Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapters 2, 4–5
  • Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 13, 15, 275, 278
  • Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 14, 188, 210