Devibhagavatapurana 2.6.36
Devībhāgavatapurāṇa 2.6.36
- Language
- Sanskrit
2.6.36
sūta uvāva ityuktyā taṃ sutaṃ kuntī mañjūṣāyāṃ dhṛtaṃ kila |
dhātrīhaste dadau bhītā janadarśanatastathā ||
Sûta said:-- Thus saying to the son within the casket, Kunti gave over that to the hands of her nurse, terrified, lest some one might see her. Kunti then bathed and remained with a fearful heart in her father's house. A carpenter (charioteer?) named Adhiratha got accidentally that casket floating in the Ganges. The carpenter's wife Râdhâ, prayed for the son and nourished him under her care. Thus nourished in the carpenter's house, the famous Kunti's son Karna became a very powerful warrior. The king Pându then married Kunti in a Svayamvara, a marriage in which the girl chooses her husband from among a number of suitors, assembled together. And the all auspicious daughter of the king of Madra became also the second wife of Pându. Once, on an occasion, the powerful Pându, while hunting in the forest killed a Muni, in the form of a deer, engaged in the act of co-habitation, thinking it to be a deer. The dying Muni became inflated with wrath, cursed Pându:-- “If you co-habit, certainly you will die.” Thus cursed by the Muni, Pându became very sorrowful and abandoned his kingdom and began to live in the forest. O Munis! His two wives Kuntî and Mâdrî, followed their husband as chaste women do, to serve him in the forest. Dwelling in the hermitage of the Munis, Pându listened to the Dharma S’âstras and practised severe penance. Once while he was listening to the religious discourses of the Munis, he heard unmistakeably the Munis telling that the man who is sonless can never go to the Heavens; so he must get a son somehow or other. The Pundits declare that the sons born of the father's semen, the sons born of their daughters, the Ksettraja, the Goloka, the Kunda, the Sahoda, the Kânîna, the Krîta, one obtained in the forest, or one offered by another father, unable to nourish his son, all are entitled to inherit the wealth of the father; but the sons, enumerated successively are more and more inferior.
N.B.: Ksettraja - of a son, the off spring of the wife by a kinsman appointed to procreate issue to the husband.
Goloka - Bastard child of a widow.
Kunda - a child born in adultery.
Sahoda - the son of a woman pregnant at the time of marriage.
Kânîna - the son born of a young and unmarried woman.
Krîta - purchased
Translations (1)
- The Sri Mad Devi Bhagavatam — Swami Vijnanananda 1921, English