Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c8.1175

c8.1175

NAKULA.
1) Birth. The fourth of the Pāṇḍavas. Mādrī, the second of the two wives of Pāṇḍu meditated on the twin gods Aśvinidevas, and recited one of the Mantras given to Kuntī by the hermit Durvāsas and the two sons Nakula and Sahadeva were born to her from those gods. It is mentioned in Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Chapter 67, Stanza 111 that Nakula and Sahadeva were immensely handsome.
2) Story of Nakula till the Bhārata battle. Naming and such other rituals after birth were performed for Nakula also as in the case of the other Pāṇḍava children, by the hermits who lived in Śataśṛṅga. The ceremony of investiture with the Brahmā string was conducted by Kaśyapa the priest of Vasudeva. The royal hermit Śuka taught Nakula archery and swordsplay, in his boyhood. When Pāṇḍu died, Mādrī jumped into the funeral pyre and died leaving her two sons with Kuntī. After this the hermits of Śataśṛṅga took Kuntī and her five sons to Bhīṣma at Hastināpura.