A Hundred Sons from a Lump of Flesh

Once, when Vyāsa came worn out with hunger and fatigue, Gāndhārī, the daughter of King Subala and the wife of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, looked after him, and he offered her a boon. She asked for a hundred sons like her husband. She conceived, but she carried the child for two years and did not give birth. Then she heard that Kuntī, the wife of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's brother Pāṇḍu, had borne a son as bright as the rising sun. In her grief, without telling Dhṛtarāṣṭra, she struck her own womb, and a lump of flesh came out, hard as iron, after two years inside her, and she was about to throw it away.

Vyāsa knew, and came at once, and saw the lump of flesh. What is this you mean to do? he asked her. She told him the truth. When I heard that Kuntī's son was born first, she said, I struck my womb in my grief. You promised me a hundred sons, and this lump of flesh is what has come. Vyāsa said, It is as I said, daughter of Subala. It cannot be otherwise. I have never spoken an untruth, even in jest. Let a hundred pots filled with ghee be brought at once, and sprinkle this lump with cool water.

As they sprinkled it, the lump divided into a hundred and one pieces, each the size of a thumb joint. He had them placed in the pots and the pots kept in a well-guarded place, and told her when they should be opened. Then he went away to the Himālaya to his austerities. In time Duryodhana was born from those pots, and his brothers after him, and a daughter, Duḥśalā.