Kunti ( Sk . कुंती ) is the heroine of the ancient Indian epic “ Mahabharata ”, the wife of the king of Hastinapura Pandu and the mother of three older of the five Pandav brothers , the main characters of the “Mahabharata”. At birth, she was called Pritha, and for her promise, the girl’s father, the king of the Yadavas, Shura gave it to his childless cousin, King Kuntibhoji [1] . By the name of her foster father, the princess began to call herself Kunti.
When the severe ascetic Durvasa lived with the king Kuntibodji for a year, Kunti was entrusted with the task of serving the guest. Durvasa was so pleased with Kunti's goodness that he rewarded her with the mantra from Atharva Veda , which she could at any time call any god to acquire offspring as a reward [2] [3] . Calling the sun god Surie out of curiosity to try out the mantra , young Kunti gave birth to the hero Karna from Surya [2] . At the insistence of Kunti, Surya gave the son with gold earrings and armor [4] , who made the hero invulnerable (cf. Achilles invulnerability, received from his mother Thetis [5] , and Balder's invulnerability, received from his mother Frigga ) [6] . In accordance with the prophecy of Durvasy , Kunti retained her virginity, and got rid of the baby by letting him in a basket along the river. Karna , whose fate Kunti watched with the help of a spy, was adopted by a driver [7] .
Kunti, keeping secret the marriage relationship with Surya , married the mighty king of the Kauravas, Pandu , who took his second wife, Madri. Because of the curse of the brahman, Pandu could not have children, and to extend the royal family of Kunti, revealing her secret to her husband, she gave birth to three sons from the gods with the help of the mantra Durvasa . The future King of Justice, the righteous Yudhishthira , was born from the god of law Dharma , the invincible and unbridled hero Bhimasen from the god of wind Vayu , the great warrior Arjuna from the king of gods Indra . After much persuasion, Pandu Kunti helped his younger wife, Madri, summon the twin gods Ashvinov , from whom the twins Nakula and Sahadev were born. Upon the death of Pandu, Madri followed him to the funeral pyre, Kunti raised all five Pandava brothers , and the older brother Pandu Dhritarashtra , who had been previously excluded from inheritance due to blindness, became the king of the Kauravs [3] .
The hundred sons of Dhrtarastra , whom the legend calls the Kauravas , led by their elder brother Duryodhana, tried to get rid of the Pandavas (poison, drown, burn) and capture their share of the kingdom. For several years, Kunti and the Pandavas wandered incognito, feeding on alms. After a brief triumph of the Pandavas, their kingdom was fraudulently won by the bones of Uncle Duryodhana, the Pandavas themselves were again sent into exile, and Kunti as a relative remained at the court of King Dhritarashtra [8] . Upon the completion of the thirteen-year exile of the Pandavas, Kunti demanded that they bring revenge against the Kauravas in arms.
Before the battle, Kunti visited Karna , who, unaware of the relationship, became twinned with Duryodhana and from his youth quarreled with the Pandavas , and asked him to spare the Pandavas on the battlefield [9] . Karna harshly reproached his mother who abandoned him in infancy and refused to reunite with his brothers, but promised to spare all the Pandavas except his eternal rival Arjuna . Here, several general epic motifs overlap [10] : the clash of unrecognized relatives (more often it is not brothers, but father with son); return of the foundling to the native family; the patronage provided by the mother of the youngest son to the detriment of the eldest (cf. Rebekah helps Jacob get the birthright bypassing the elder Esau ). In the conflict of Kunti - Karna, all these motifs deviate from the canon: Karna knows that Arjuna is his brother, but he does not refuse enmity; to quit elderly adoptive parents and to recognize Kunti as a mother, offended Karna, also disagree; the crown of the Pandavas and the birthright are not interesting for him [11] .
In the Battle of Kuruksetra, the Pandavas defeat the Kauravas and regain the kingdom, and Karna dies in a battle with Arjuna , who used dishonest means [12] . Only when they perform the funeral rites of the Pandavas will they learn from Kunti that invincible Karna was their brother, and Yudhisthira angrily rebukes the mother for hiding their kinship with Karna . Kunti suffers repentance, believing that the greatest hero Karna died because of her fault (after all, she hid from Arjuna that Karna was his brother), and the rest of her life is carried out by a recluse in the woods with the elderly Dhritarashtra and his wife Gandhari, where all three die in a forest fire.
Notes
- ↑ S. L. Neveleva. The plot of Carna in III book. Mahabharata ("Consciousness of initiation") // In Sb. Ancient india Tongue. Culture Text. M., 1985.
- ↑ 1 2 Mahabharata. Book of the fifteenth Ashramavasikaparva (Book of life in the monastery). Per. from skt and comments. S. L. Neveleva and Ya. V. Vasilkova. SPb., 2005.
- ↑ 1 2 Mahabharata. Book One Adiparva. Per. from skt and comments. V.I. Kalyanova. M.-L., 1950.
- ↑ Mahabharata. Book three Aranyakaparva (Book Forest). Per. from skt and comments. Ya. V. Vasilkova and S. L. Neveleva. M., 1987.
- ↑ Apollodorus. Mythological library. Per. from ancient Greek. and comments. V. G. Borukhovich. L., 1972.
- ↑ Younger Edda. Per. with ancient. O. A. Smirnitskoy, comment. MI Steblin-Kamensky. L., 1970.
- ↑ Mahabharata. Book three Aranyakaparva (Book Forest). Per. from skt and comments. Ya. V. Vasilkova and S. L. Neveleva. M., 1987.
- ↑ Mahabharata. Book Two Sabhaparva (Book of the Assembly). Per. from skt and comments. V.I. Kalyanova. M.-L., 1962.
- ↑ Mahabharata. The book is the fifth Udyogaparva (The Book of Attempt). Per. from skt and comments. V.I. Kalyanova. L., 1976.
- ↑ S. L. Neveleva. Mahabharata. The study of the ancient Indian epic. M., 1991.
- ↑ A. R. Ibragimov. The image of Karna in the Mahabharata. Search for the tragic hero of the Indian epic. M., 2009.
- ↑ Mahabharata. Book of the eighth Carnaparva (Book of Carne). Per. from skt and comments. Ya. V. Vasilkova and S. L. Neveleva. M., 1990.