Kuntī

Kuntī In the Indian epic the Mahābhārata (see Mahābhārata), Kuntī is a wife of Pāṇḍu, who because of a curse cannot have sexual relations with his two wives. Kuntī becomes the mother of the three main Pāṇḍava (see Pāṇḍavas) brothers—the heroes of the epic—by the gods Dharma (see Dharma), Vāyu (see Vāyu), and Indra (see Indra). Because of a promise inadvertently made by Kuntī, the Pāṇḍava brothers must share one wife, Draupadī (see Draupadī). Kuntī is also the mother, by the sun god, of the antihero Karṇa (see Karṇa) before she became the mother of the Pāṇḍavas. It might be said, then, that the gods use Kuntī as a kind of catalytic vessel for many of the events of the epic. It is perhaps for this reason that she is also called Pṛthā, which associates her with the primal vessel, Pṛthivi (see Pṛthivi) or Earth.