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Kunti and birth of Karna

Episode#12

Pandu was married to Kunti, the daughter of King Sursena of the Yadavas clan where she was known as Pritha, King Kuntibhoja the elder brother of king Sursena, who was childless had adopted Pritha and renamed her as Kunti.

When Kunti was young, her father King Kuntibhoja welcomed a visiting Brahmin as their guest and asked Kunti to attend him. In those days sex hospitality was offered to distinguished guests.

(A few scriptures mention about a Brahmin from whom Kunti begot a child a child who was supposedly named as Karna but it has not been clearly established elsewhere and hence Karna is widely known to be the child of Sun-God).

Coming back to the first story, the aforesaid Brahmin was known for his great magical powers. Pleased with Kunti's dedicated and sincere services, he blessed her with several divine mantras with which she could call upon any God to father her child.

After he left, Kunti out of her curiosity, chanted one of the divine mantras and called Surya, the Sun-God: He appeared immediately and after their brief meeting, she begot a son with golden Kundal (earrings) in his ears and a Golden Kavach (armour) on his chest.

Frightened of the sudden happenings, Kunti stealthily put the child in a box along with gold and jewellery and sailed it in the river. The boy was found and adopted by the chariot-rider Adhiratha, and later that child was known as Karna.

Bhisma brought another alliance - Princess Madri, daughter of the King Madra, as the second wife of Pandu by paying large amount of money to her father! After coronation, Pandu conquered all the kings of the earth and presented great sum as a token of tribute to Bhisma and Dhritrashtra and then left with his two Queens to the Himalayan forest.

While he amused himself with hunting expeditions, the kingdom was apparently looked after by Bhisma and Dhritrashtra in his absence.

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