Itihāsa / Mahābhārata chronicle / Ādi · 5 of 50
5. Births, and the child on the water
Ādi (आदि)
Dhṛtarāṣṭra marries Gāndhārī. She binds her own eyes, so that she will not see more than her husband can. A hundred sons will come, Duryodhana the eldest, and a daughter. Pāṇḍu marries Kuntī and Mādrī. In the forest a sage's curse falls on him: if he goes to a woman, he dies. The line, again, has no natural road.
Kuntī has a secret from her girlhood. A mantra, given by the sage Durvāsas, that calls a god. She had tested it once, before her marriage, and the sun came. A child was born already armed with earrings and a natural mail, too glorious and too compromising to keep. She set him on the river. A charioteer's family, Adhiratha and Rādhā, drew him out and raised him as their own. His name among them is Vasuṣeṇa, and later Karṇa. He will stand on the other side of every war his brothers fight, and for a long time nobody in the hall will say the word brother.
Pāṇḍu asks Kuntī to use the mantra for the kingdom's sake. Dharma comes, and Yudhiṣṭhira is born. Vāyu, and Bhīma. Indra, and Arjuna. Mādrī receives the mantra once and calls the Aśvins, and the twins Nakula and Sahadeva are born. Then Pāṇḍu forgets the curse, and dies, and Mādrī follows him onto the pyre. Kuntī brings five sons back to the city where a hundred cousins are already growing up. The blind king is on the throne because the pale king is dead. Love and resentment are planted in the same courtyard.
नेपालीमा
गान्धारीले आफ्नै आँखा बाँधिन्, ताकि पतिले देख्न सक्ने भन्दा बढी उनले देख्नु नपरोस्। उनका दुर्योधन जेठा भएका सय छोरा र एक छोरी हुनेछन्। पाण्डुले कुन्ती र माद्रीसँग विवाह गरे। वनमा उनलाई ऋषिको श्राप लाग्यो: स्त्रीकहाँ गए उनी मर्छन्। कुन्तीसँग केटाकेटीमा ऋषि दुर्वासाले दिएको, देवता बोलाउने मन्त्र थियो। विवाहअघि उनले एकपटक त्यसको परीक्षा गर्दा सूर्य आएका थिए। कुण्डल र कवचसहित जन्मेको शिशुलाई उनले नदीमा छाडिन्। सारथि अधिरथ र राधाको परिवारले उनलाई उठाएर आफ्नै छोराजस्तो हुर्कायो। त्यो कर्ण हो। पाण्डुको अनुरोधमा कुन्तीले मन्त्र प्रयोग गरिन्: धर्मबाट युधिष्ठिर, वायुबाट भीम, इन्द्रबाट अर्जुन। माद्रीले एकपटक मन्त्र पाएर अश्विनीकुमारलाई बोलाइन्, र नकुल र सहदेव जन्मे। पाण्डुले श्राप बिर्सिए र मरे, अनि माद्री उनीसँगै चितामा गइन्। कुन्तीले पाँच छोरा सहरमा ल्याइन्, जहाँ सय दाजुभाइ पहिल्यै हुर्कँदै थिए।