A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.894

c5.894

KRIPĀ, KRIPĪ. Wife of Drona and mother of Aswatthāman. The sage Saradwat or Gotama so alarmed Indra by his austerities that the god sent a nymph to tempt him. Though she was unsuccessful, two children were found born to the sage in a tuft of grass. King Śantanu found them and brought them up out of compassion (*kripā*), whence their names, Kripa and Kripā. The children passed as Śantanu’s own. Drona was a Brāhman and Śantanu a Kshatriya : the myth makes Kripī a Brāhmanī, and so accounts for her being the wife of Drona. The Vishnu Purāna represents them as children of Satya-dhriti, grandson of Saradwat by the nymph Urvasī, and as being exposed in a clump of long grass.