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Mādrī
EntityQ1770690· pop 36· linked from 269 articles

Also known as Mādravatī

Madri (, ), also known as Madravati (, ), is a legendary character in the Mahabharata, an ancient Sanskrit epic poem. She is the princess from the Madra Kingdom and becomes the second wife of Pandu, the king of the Kuru Kingdom. She is the mother of the twins Nakula and Sahadeva, the youngest of the five Pandava brothers.

Key facts

Character.series
Mahabharata
Character.image
Madri - Raja Ravi Varma Print.jpg
Character.caption
A print of Madri by Raja Ravi Varma (1848 – 1906)
Character.gender
Female
Character.info hdr
Personal Information
Character.spouse
Pandu
Character.origin
Madra
Character.children
Nakula and Sahadeva (by Ashvins)
Character.lbl21
Clan
Character.data21
Bahlikas

via Wikipedia infobox

~23 min read

Encyclopedic overview

14 sections
Contents
  • Literary background
  • Name and epithets
  • Biography
  • Marriage
  • Exile
  • Birth of Nakula and Sahadeva
  • Death
  • Assessment
  • Sati
  • Beyond the ''Mahabharata''
  • Notes
  • References
  • Bibliography
  • External links

Madri (, ), also known as Madravati (, ), is a legendary character in the Mahabharata, an ancient Sanskrit epic poem. She is the princess from the Madra Kingdom and becomes the second wife of Pandu, the king of the Kuru Kingdom. She is the mother of the twins Nakula and Sahadeva, the youngest of the five Pandava brothers.

Madri is the daughter of Madraraja—the king of Madra—and sister of Shalya. Her marriage to Pandu is arranged by Bhishma, the grandsire of the Kuru dynasty, in exchange for a heavy bride price. After Pandu is cursed that he would die if he engaged in sexual relations, Madri accompanies Pandu in his self-imposed exile, along with Pandu's first wife, Kunti. Using Kunti's divine boon, Madri invokes the twin gods Ashvins to conceive her twin sons. Later, the cursed Pandu dies when he is overcome by desire and initiates intimacy with Madri. Overcome with remorse and grief, Madri entrusts her sons to Kunti's care and joins him in death.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mādrī” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (4)