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STORIES · THE MAHĀBHĀRATA · Ādi

The divine births of the Pāṇḍavas

Classical

Pāṇḍu had been cursed by a dying sage never to unite with a wife, or he would die. He retired to the forest with his two wives, Kuntī and Mādrī, and grieved that he had no children. He told Kuntī that the old custom allowed a wife to bear children by another man at her husband's request, and that his own father Vyāsa was an example. Kuntī then told him of the mantra that the sage Durvāsas had given her as a girl, which could call any god to give her a child. At Pāṇḍu's wish Kuntī first called Dharma, the god of justice. A son was born whom a voice from the sky named Yudhiṣṭhira, destined to be the most righteous king in the three worlds. Pāṇḍu, saying a warrior needs strength, then asked her to call Vāyu, the wind.

Vāyu gave her a son of huge strength, Bhīma. When the baby fell from her lap as she jumped up, startled by a tiger, he shattered the rock he landed on without a scratch. By the account in the text, Duryodhana was born the same day. Pāṇḍu then wanted a son who would be the finest of all. He kept a vow of severe austerities for a year, standing on one leg, while Kuntī kept her own vow. Indra, pleased, promised a son who would be famous in the three worlds. Kuntī called him, and Arjuna was born. A voice from the sky declared he would equal Kārtavīrya in energy and Śiva in valour, win lands for the Kurus, and enlarge his mother's joy as Viṣṇu did Aditi's. Mādrī, the younger wife, then came privately to Pāṇḍu and said her only sorrow was being childless while Kuntī and Gāndhārī had sons.

At Pāṇḍu's request Kuntī taught her the mantra. Mādrī called the twin Aśvins and received twins, Nakula and Sahadeva, of unmatched beauty. Pāṇḍu next asked Kuntī to help Mādrī again, but Kuntī refused: she felt Mādrī had gained two sons with a single use of the mantra, and she would not grant more. The sages of the hundred-peaked mountain performed the birth rites and gave the five boys their names. These five births tie the Pāṇḍavas to the gods by birth, whatever their legal father. The later tradition links the five to the five Indras whom Śiva once sent down to earth, and to the five-fold marriage with Draupadī. Here, though, the epic is mostly interested in a different question: whose children are they? Duryodhana and his brothers would later ask that question again and again, and the Pāṇḍavas' reply is always that they are the sons of Pāṇḍu by the law of the niyoga, the same law that produced Pāṇḍu himself.

The births are arranged as a ladder. Dharma gives a son of righteousness, Vāyu a son of strength, Indra a son of skill and fame, and the twin Aśvins, physicians and gods of beauty, give two sons of grace. Each father gives his son his chief quality, and the sons keep them: Yudhiṣṭhira's truthfulness, Bhīma's strength, Arjuna's mastery of the bow, and the twins' beauty and devotion. The text also takes pains to say who Pāṇḍu's own sons are, as he could not father them. This will matter at Draupadī's svayaṃvara, at the dice game, and in the abuse Duryodhana's side throws at the Pāṇḍavas as 'not Pāṇḍu's sons'. The text's reply is that by niyoga, sons born in this way are legally the husband's.

Told by Vaiśampāyana → Janamejaya

Who: Pāṇḍu, Kuntī, Mādrī, Dharma, Vāyu, Indra, The Aśvins, Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva

Bound to

Kindama's Curse curse

Kunti's mantra and Karna's birth boon

Shvetaketu and the origin of marriage fidelity mirror

Draupadi's previous life as Nalayani and the five Indras twin

Pāṇḍu's death and Mādrī's sati origin

Places: Mountain of the Hundred Peaks (Śataśṛṅga)

Where this comes from

See it on the tree · All stories

← Vichitravīrya's death and the niyoga: Vyāsa fathers Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Pāṇḍu and Vidura · Pāṇḍu's death and Mādrī's sati →