Madri is the junior
wife of King Pandu and the mother of Nakula and Sahadeva in the Mahabharata,
the later of the two major Hindu epics.
Pandu has been cursed to perish the instant he hugs his wife
in loving embrace, therefore none of these children are his sons.
Rather, they were created miraculously by the impact of a
mantra delivered by the sage Durvasas to Pandu's second wife, Kunti.
The mantra offers the woman who recites it the ability to
summon any deity and conceive a son with the same power as that god.
Kunti gives the mantra to Madri, who recites it to the twin
gods known as the Ashvins, with Pandu's approval.
As a result, she has twins.
They live happily ever after until spring arrives in the
woodland.
Pandu embraces Madri under the intoxicating influence of
spring; the curse takes effect, and Pandu dies.
Madri abandons her children to Kunti's care as a result of
her participation in Pandu's death, and she dies on Pandu's funeral pyre.
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