SB 1.13.3-4 (1965)
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXTS No.'s 3 & 4
Tam bandhum agatam dristwa dharmaputra sahanujah Dhritarastra yuyutsus cha sutah saradvatah pritha (3)
Gandhari droupadi brahman subhadra cha uttara kripi Anyas cha jamayah pandor jnatayoh sasutah striyah. (4)
ENGLISH SYNONYMS
Tam—him, Bandhum—relative, Agatam—having arrived there, Dristwa—by seeing it, Dharmaputra—Yudhisthir, Sahanujah—along with his younger brothers, Dhritarastra—of the name, yuyutsu—Satyaki, Cha—and, Sutah—Sanjaya, Saradvatah—Kripacharya, Pritha—Kunti, Gandhari—of the name, Droupadi—of the name, Brahman—oh the brahmins, Subhadra—of the name, Cha—and, Uttara—of the name, Kripi—of the name, Anyas-others, Cha—and, Jamayah—wives of other family members, Pandor—of the Pandavas, Jnatayah—family members, Sasutah—along with their sons, Striyah—the Ladies.
TRANSLATION
When they saw him (Vidura) come back again in the palace all the inmates, Maharaj Yudhisthir along with younger brothers, Dhritarastra, Satyaki, Sanjaya, Kripacharya, Kunti, Gandhari, Droupadi, Subhadra, Uttara, Kripi, and many others who were wives of Kauravas and other ladies with their children all hurriedly went towards him with great delight and it so appeared that all of them regained consciousness after a pretty long period.
PURPORT
Gandhari:—The ideal chaste lady in the history of the world. She was the daughter of Maharaj Subal the king of Gandhar (now Kandahar in Kabul) and in her maiden state she worshipped Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva is worshipped generally by the Hindu maidens for achieving good husband. Gandhari satisfied Lord Shiva and by his benediction for obtaining one hundred sons, she was betrothed to Dhritarastra inspite of his becoming blind for ever. When Gandhari came to know that her would-be-husband was a blindman, she just to follow her life companion, decided to become voluntarily blind and wrapped up her eyes with manyfold silk linen, and later she was married to Dhritarastra under the guidance of her elder brother Sakuni. She was a most beautiful girl of her time and she was equally qualified by her womanly qualities which endeared every member of the Kaurava court. But inspite of her all good qualities she had the natural frailties of a woman and she was envious of Kunti when the latter gave birth to a male child. Both the queens were pregnant but Kunti first gave birth to a male child. And thus she became angry and gave a blow on her abdomen. As a result of this she gave birth to a lump of flesh only but as she was a devotee of Vyasdeva so by instruction of Vyasdeva the lump became divided into one hundred parts and each part gradually developed to become each a male child. Thus her ambition to become the mother of one hundred sons was fulfilled and she began to nourish all the children according to her exhalted position. When the intrigue of the battlefield of Kurukshetra was going on she was not in favor fighting with the Pandavas rather she blaimed Dhritarastra her husband for intriguing such fratricidal war. She desired that the state may be divided into two parts, for the sons of the Pandu and her own. She was too much affected when all her sons died in the battle of Kurukshetra and she wanted to curse Bhimasena and Yudhisthir but she was checked by Vyasdeva. Her pitious mourning over the death of Duryodhone and Duhsasan before Lord Krishna is very much appealing and Lord Krishna pacified her by transcendental messages. She was equally aggrieved on the death of Karna and she described before Lord Krishna about the lamentation of Karna's wife. She was pacified by Srila Vyasdeva when he showed her dead sons then promoted to the heavenly Kingdoms. She died along with her husband in the jungles in the Himalaya near the mouth of the Ganges; she burnt in the forest fire. Maharaj Yudhisthir performed the death ceremony of his uncle and aunt.
Pritha: Daughter of Maharaj Surasen and sister of Vasudeva Lord Krishna's father. Later she was adopted by Maharaj Kuntibhoja and hence she is known as Kunti. She is the incarnation of the Success Potency of the Personality of Godhead. The heavenly denizens from the upper planets used to visit the palace of the king Kuntibhoja and Kunti was engaged for their reception. She also served the great mystic sage Durbasa and being satisfied by her faithful service Durbasa Muni gave her one chanting hymn by which it was possible for her to call for anyone of the demigods as she pleased. As a matter of inquisitiveness she at once called for the Sun-god who desired couplement with her which she declined. But the Sun-god assured her immunity from virgin adulteration and she agreed to his proposal. As result of this couplement she became pregnant and Karna was born by her. By the grace of the sun she again turned to become a virgin girl but being afraid of her parents she quited the newly born child Karna. After that when she actually selected her own husband she preferred Pandu to be her husband. Maharaj Pandu later on wanted to retire from family life and adopt the renounced order of life. Kunti refused to allow her husband to adopt such life but at last Maharaj Pandu gave her permission to become mother of sons by calling some other suitable personalities. Kunti did not accept this proposal at first but when vivid examples were set by Pandu she agreed. Thus by dint of the hymn awarded by Durbasa Muni she called for Dharmaraj and thus Yudhisthir was born. She called for demigod Vayu (air) and thus Bhima was born. She called for Indra the King of heaven and thus Arjuna was born. The other two sons namely Nakula and Sahadeva was begotten by Pandu himself in the womb of Madri. Later on Maharaj Pandu died at an early age for which Kunti was too much aggrieved and she fainted. Two co wives namely Kunti and Madri decided that Kunti should live for the maintenance of the five minor children the Pandavas and Madri should accept the Sati rituals by meeting voluntary death along with her husband Pandu. This agreement was endorsed by great sages like Satasringa and others present on the occasion.
Later on when the Pandavas were banished from the kingdom by the intrigues of Duryadhona, Kunti followed her sons and she equally faced all sorts of difficulties during those days. During the forest life one demon girl Hidimbi wanted Bhima as her husband which was refused by Bhima but when the girl approached Kunti and Yudhisthir they ordered Bhima to accept her proposal and give her a son. As a result of this combination Ghatotkach was born and he fought very valiently on the side of his father with the Kauravas. In their forest life they lived with a Brahmin family who were in trouble on account of one Bakasusa demon and Kunti ordered Bhima to kill the Bakasura to protect the Brahmin family in troubles created by the demon. She advised Yudhisthir to start for the Panchal Desha. Droupadi was gained in this Panchala Desha by Arjuna but by order of Kunti all the five brothers of Pandavas became equally the husband of Panchali or Droupadi. She was married with five Pandavas in the presence of Vyasadeva. Kuntidevi never forgot her first child Karna and after Karna's death in the battle of Kurukshetra she lamented and admitted before her other sons that Karna was her eldest son prior to her marriage with Maharaj Pandu. After the battle of Kurukshetra when Lord Krishna was going back home, her prayers for the Lord is excellently explained and later on she went to the forest along with Gandhari for severe penance. She used to take meals after each thirty days. The last stage of her life is that she sat down tightly in profound meditation and later on burnt down in the forest fire to ashes.
Droupadi: The most chastened daughter of Maharaj Drupad and partly incarnation of goddess Sachi the wife of Indra. Maharaj Drupad performed a great sacrifice under the superintendency of the sage Yaja. By his first offering Dhristadumna was born and by the second offering Droupadi was born. She is therefore sister of Dhristadumna and her another name is Panchali. The five Pandavas married her as the common wife and each of them begot a son in her. Maharaj Yudhisthir begot a son of the name Pratibindh, Bhimsena begot a son of the name Sutasome, Arjuna begot Srutakirti, Nakula begot Satanika and Sahadeva begot Srutakama. She is described to be the most beautiful lady equal to her mother-in-law Kunti. During her birth there was a areo message that she should be called as Krishna. The same message also declared that she is born to kill many a Kshatriyas. On account of her blessings from Shankara she was awarded with five husbands equally qualified. When she preferred to select her own husband, princes and kings were invited from all countries of the world. She was married with the Pandavas during their exile in the forest but when they went back home Maharaj Drupad gave them immense wealth as dowry. She was well received by all the daughter-in-laws of Dhritarastra. When she was lost in the game, she was forcibly dragged into the assembly hall and attempt was made to see her naked beauty by Duhsasan even there were all elderly persons like Bhisma and Drona present. She was a great devotee of Lord Krishna and by her praying, the Lord Himself became a unlimited garment of divotee to save her from the insult. A demon of the name Jatasura kidnapped her but her second husband Bhimsena killed the demon and saved her from the clutches. She saved the Pandavas from the curse of Maharshi Durbasa by the grace of Lord Krishna. When the Pandavas lived incognito in the palace of Virata, Kichak was attracted by her exquisite beauty and by arrangement with Bhima the devil was killed and she was saved. She was too much aggrieved when her all the five sons were killed by Aswatthama. At the last stage she accompanied her husband Yudhisthir and others and she fell on the way. The cause of her falling was explained by Yudhisthir but when Yudhisthir entered the heavenly planet like the glowing sun he saw Droupadi present there as the goddess of fortune in the havenly kingdom.
Subhadra: Daughter of Vasudeva and own sister of Lord Sri Krishna. She was not only a very dear daughter of Vasudava but also she was a very dear sister for both Krishna and Valadeva. The three brothers and sisters are represented in the famous Jagannath Temple of Puri and the Temple is still visited by thousands of pilgrims daily uptill now. This temple is in remembrance of the Lord's visit at Kurukshetra during an occasion of solar eclipse and then meeting with the residents of Vrindaban. The meeting of Radha and Krishna during this occasion is very much pathetic story and Lord Sri Chaitanya in the ecstasy of Radharani always berieved for Lord Sri Krishna at Jagganath Puri. While Arjuna was at Dwarka he liked to have Subhadra as her queen and he expressed his desire to Lord Krishna. Sri Krishna knew it that His elder brother Lord Valadeva was arranging her marriage elsewhere and as He did not dare to go against the arrangement of Valadeva He advised Arjuna to kidnap Subhadra. So when all of them were on a pleasure trip on the Raivata hill, Arjuna managed to kidnap Subhadra according to the plan of Sri Krishna. Sri Valadeva was very angry upon Arjuna and He wanted to kill Arjuna but Lord Krishna implored His brother to excuse Arjuna. Then Subhadra was duly married with Arjuna and Abhimunya was born of Subhadra. At the premature death of Abhimunya Subhadra was too much mortified but on the birth of Parikshit she was happy and solaced.