Pandu's queen, also called Pritha. Mother of Karna, Yudhishthira, Bhima and Arjuna.
Kunti, also called Pritha, is Pandu's queen and mother of Karna, Yudhishthira, Bhima and Arjuna. Before the war she sends Yudhishthira the story of Vidula, who told her son to blaze rather than smoulder (MBh 5.133.15), and she goes to Karna to tell him he is her son (MBh 5.145.2).
कौन्तेयस्त्वं न राधेयो न तवाधिरथः पिता ।नासि सूतकुले जातः कर्ण तद्विद्धि मे वचः ॥
kaunteyastvaṃ na rādheyo na tavādhirathaḥ pitā |nāsi sūtakule jātaḥ karṇa tadviddhi me vacaḥ ||
You are Kunti's son, Karna, and Radha did not bear you. Adhiratha is not your father. You were not born among the charioteers. Know this from me.
MBh 5.145.2Kunti to Karna
She tells him the secret she has kept all his life, and asks him to join his brothers.
As a girl in King Kuntibhoja's house she receives a mantra from the sage Durvasa. She calls the Sun and bears Karna, and lets him go. MBh 5.141.3
Married to Pandu, she bears Yudhishthira, Bhima and Arjuna, and raises Madri's twins as her own after Madri dies.
Through Krishna she sends Yudhishthira the story of Vidula, a mother who would not let her defeated son lie down. MBh 5.132 to 5.133
She goes to Karna and tells him he is her firstborn. He refuses to change sides but promises to spare four of her sons. MBh 5.145 to 5.146
After the war she leaves the palace with Dhritarashtra and Gandhari to live in the forest.
कौन्तेयस्त्वं न राधेयो न तवाधिरथः पिता ।नासि सूतकुले जातः कर्ण तद्विद्धि मे वचः ॥
kaunteyastvaṃ na rādheyo na tavādhirathaḥ pitā |nāsi sūtakule jātaḥ karṇa tadviddhi me vacaḥ ||
You are Kunti's son, Karna, and Radha did not bear you. Adhiratha is not your father. You were not born among the charioteers. Know this from me.
MBh 5.145.2Kunti to Karna
कानीनस्त्वं मया जातः पूर्वजः कुक्षिणा धृतः ।कुन्तिराजस्य भवने पार्थस्त्वमसि पुत्रक ॥
kānīnastvaṃ mayā jātaḥ pūrvajaḥ kukṣiṇā dhṛtaḥ |kuntirājasya bhavane pārthastvamasi putraka ||
I bore you before I was married, my firstborn, carried in my womb in King Kuntibhoja's house. You are a son of Pritha, my child.
MBh 5.145.3Kunti to Karna
ब्रूयाः केशव राजानं धर्मात्मानं युधिष्ठिरम् ।भूयांस्ते हीयते धर्मो मा पुत्रक वृथा कृथाः ॥
brūyāḥ keśava rājānaṃ dharmātmānaṃ yudhiṣṭhiram |bhūyāṃste hīyate dharmo mā putraka vṛthā kṛthāḥ ||
Tell King Yudhishthira, whose heart is set on dharma: much of your dharma is slipping away, my son. Do not let it go to waste.
MBh 5.132.5Kunti to Krishna
मुहूर्तं ज्वलितं श्रेयो न च धूमायितं चिरम् ।मा ह स्म कस्यचिद्गेहे जनि राज्ञः खरो मृदुः ॥
muhūrtaṃ jvalitaṃ śreyo na ca dhūmāyitaṃ ciram |mā ha sma kasyacidgehe jani rājñaḥ kharo mṛduḥ ||
Better to blaze for a moment than to smoulder for years. May no king's house have a son who is only harsh or only soft.
MBh 5.133.15Vidula to her son, as Kunti tells it
माऽऽत्मानमवमन्यस्व मैनमल्पेन बीभरः ।मनः कृत्वा सुकल्याणं मा भैस्त्वं प्रतिसंहर ॥
mā''tmānamavamanyasva mainamalpena bībharaḥ |manaḥ kṛtvā sukalyāṇaṃ mā bhaistvaṃ pratisaṃhara ||
Do not despise yourself. Do not feed yourself on so little. Set your mind on what is good. Do not be afraid. Pull yourself together.
MBh 5.133.7Vidula to her son, as Kunti tells it
त्वया चतुर्णां भ्रातॄणामभयं शत्रुकर्शन ।दत्तं तत्प्रतिजानीहि सङ्गरप्रतिमोचनम् ॥
tvayā caturṇāṃ bhrātṝṇāmabhayaṃ śatrukarśana |dattaṃ tatpratijānīhi saṅgarapratimocanam ||
You have given four of your brothers your word of safety, tamer of foes. Hold to that promise until the battle releases you from it.
MBh 5.146.26Kunti to Karna
Krishna's first words to Arjuna, "Stand up," are Vidula's words to her son, and Kunti's to Yudhishthira.
Vidula says the wise grieve over neither gain nor loss (MBh 5.133.17), the evenness the Gita asks for.
Book six, between the two armies, told by Sanjaya after Bhishma falls.
Week 1 of the Gita by email: one verse a day and what it asks of you.
Send my weekLines come from the Sanskrit we hold for books 3, 5, 12, 13 and 14, a southern-recension text whose numbering runs close to the Kumbhakonam edition, so verse numbers can differ from the Pune critical edition. Events from books we have yet to add in Sanskrit carry no verse number. The English is Wisdom's own, read with Nilakantha's commentary, with K. M. Ganguli's public-domain translation consulted.
Wisdom translation, edited by Ankur Shukla.