Kuntī

There came once to the house of King Kuntibhoja a brahmin of fierce power, very tall, with a beard and matted hair and a staff, handsome and blazing, tawny as honey and sweet of speech, adorned with austerity and the study of the Veda. This was Durvāsa. He said to the king: I wish to live in your house and eat your food. You and your people must never cross me. I will come and go as I please, and no one is to offend me over my bed or my seat.

So be it, said the king, and gladly. Then he called his daughter Pṛthā, whom he had adopted from his friend Śūra, and who was called Kuntī after him, and told her: This great brahmin wishes to stay in my house, and I have promised. I am trusting you to serve him. Give him whatever he asks without grudging. Brahmins are the highest power and the highest austerity. I know how you behave to everyone, and there is no one in the city or the palace who is not pleased with you. But I must warn you about this angry brahmin. Put away pride and self-will and serve him, and you will be blessed. If he is angered, my whole house will burn.

I will serve the brahmin as you have promised, said Pṛthā, and I do not lie. Whether he comes in the evening or the morning, at night or at midnight, he will have no cause for anger. It is my nature to honour brahmins, and it is my gain to do it at your command. Do not worry.

So the king gave her to the brahmin's service, and she put away weariness and pride and served him with all her strength, as one serves a god. He would say, I will come in the morning, and come in the evening or at night. Again and again he came at odd hours, or did not come at all, and called for food that was hard to find, and she had it ready. Whatever he said to her, scolding and blaming and speaking unkindly, she never did anything he disliked. She served him like a pupil, like a son, like a sister. Every morning and evening her father asked, Is the brahmin pleased with your service? And she answered, Very much.

When a whole year had passed and he had found no fault in her, the brahmin said: I am very pleased with you, good girl. Choose boons that are hard for men to win. Everything I could wish for is done already, she said, since you are pleased, and my father is pleased. That is boon enough. If you will not choose a boon, he said, then take this mantra for calling the gods. Whichever god you call with it will be in your power, willing or unwilling. She could not refuse him a second time, for fear of a curse. So he taught her the mantra, and said to the king, I have lived happily in your house, honoured and well served by your daughter. Now I will go. And he vanished where he stood.

With that mantra Kuntī, still a girl, called the Sun, and bore him a son, Karṇa. Later, as the queen of King Pāṇḍu, she called Dharma, the god of right, and bore Yudhiṣṭhira; the Wind, and bore Bhīma; and Indra, and bore Arjuna.