King Pandu: Knowing the Consequences.
The Diary stories of Kunti.
Dear Diary,
Today, I met my husband. His name is Pandu. He came
to my
swayamvara and I immediately chose him. He is so handsome and he is a
king. Now I am a Queen. I cannot wait to see our kingdom.
- Kunti
Dear Diary,
We have arrived at our kingdom and
little did I
know, Bhishma had found another wife for Pandu. Her name is Madri. I
cannot believe I have to share my husband with someone else. Everything
shall be fine though. She seems like a wonderful person. We should make
great friends.
-Kunti
Dear Diary,
We have lived happily in Hastinpura
now for many
months. I am now happy with Madri and do not mind that Pandu has two
wives. Pandu informed me today that we would be going into the forest
for a while. We will be leaving today.
-Kunti
Dear Diary,
We are now in the forest. It is not
bad at all.
Our attendants built a wonderful home for us out here and we are sent
food from the city everyday. I am kind of enjoying the peace out here.
-Kunti
Dear Diary,
Today Pandu went out for a hunt.
When he returned,
he told me about something horrible he did, although he did not think
it was horrible. He told me how he had killed two deer while they were
making love, and the deer cursed him. He is not allowed to make love to
either me nor Madri or he will die. I am very saddened by this, for how
am I supposed to have his children now?
-Kunti
Dear Diary,
I am still very upset about the
actions of my
husband. He has been cursed because of his thoughtless actions. He told
Madri and me to go back to Hastinpura today and I will not obey. I love
him and will not leave him just because we cannot make love. If Madri
and I
stay here in the forest, we will not be able to share love with him,
but if we go, we will
die of broken hearts. That is why we have chosen to stay and share this
curse with him.
-Kunti
Dear Diary,
Today, we left our home in the
forest and went to
live in a hidden valley. Pandu has given up the throne. We shall live
only as three and we will keep each other happy with our love for each
other, although we shall never touch.
-Kunti
Dear Diary,
Pandu was very sad today, for he
cannot have
children. I hesitated in telling him about the Mantra I know which
allows me to get children from the gods, but I did
anyways. Soon after I told him, he ordered me to call down the god of
justice, Dharma. I did as he had said and Dharma came down from heaven.
He gave me my first son, Yudhishthira. I was so excited. Then, Pandu
told me to call down Vayu, the wind god. So I did. He gave us a son,
Bhima. Yet this was still not enough for Pandu and he ordered me to
call Indra, he gave us Arjuna. I was all caught up in finally having
children that I forgot all about Madri. She asked to have a son by
Pandu also, so I shared the Mantra with her. She called down the
Aswins, from them she bore twin sons, Nakula and Sahadeva. We were
complete. Today was a very happy day.
-Kunti
Dear Diary,
I am very happy. I finally have
sons with Pandu.
They are growing up very quickly though. They are all so handsome and
kind. They are going to be very good warriors when the time comes.
Pandu is like a new man. As he has been watching them grow, he has
seemed to gain his strength back. Oh we are so blessed.
-Kunti
Dear Diary,
I know it has been a while, but we
are just so
happy, raising our sons to grow up right. The years have flown by and I
am so proud of our sons. They have really turned out well. Nothing much
else has been going on.
-Kunti
Dear Diary,
Something horrible has happened.
Pandu has
forgotten about his curse and today, Madri went to bathe in the river
and he followed her. He grabbed her and made love to her, although she
was trying to stop him. Soon after this, he died. I don't understand
why
he would do something like this. He knew about his curse and the
consequences if he was to make love. My heart aches.
-Kunti
Dear Diary,
Madri is also dead. Her heart
ached so much when
Pandu died that she also has died. What am I to do? I am here all
alone to raise five boys. I am sad and scared.
-Kunti
Dear Diary,
Although my heart still aches for
Pandu and Madri,
I have realized that he had to face the consequences of his actions. He
knew what would happen if he made love and he still did so. He used to
be such a strong man, but he lost his way. I must now move on and make
sure our boys stay on the right track and be true.
-Kunti
Picture of Kunti and her sons. Web Source: Pandava.
Author's Note: I decided to tell this story from Kunti's
point of view. In order to do this, I decided to make diary entries. In
this story Kunti tells of the time she met Pandu all the way to the
deaths of Pandu and Madri. I wanted to show more emotion in this story
then the
original story, although I left a few parts out. In the original story,
Pandu meets Kunti and then Madri, and then he is cursed by the deer. He
then finds out about Kunti's Mantra and wants sons, but after his sons
are born he feels carefree and forgets about his curse, only to make
love to Madri and die. There is not much emotion shown in the original
story and there is not much of an after story. I wanted to include
emotion and what Kunti felt afterwards. Instead of having her sulk
forever, I had her getting over it and realizing that Pandu brought
this
on himself by his thoughtless actions in killing the deer that were
making love. Also, in the original story, Kunti is upset that Pandu did
not want her. I left that out to portray Kunti as a more strong,
self-sufficient woman.
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Bibliography:
Buck, William (1973). Mahabharata.