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Other names: Pruttha, Pritha, Kuntee

Kunti was King Shursen’s daughter and sister of Vasudev, the father of Lord Krishna. Hence, she was the aunt of Lord Krishna. Her childhood name was Prutha and King Kuntibhoj had adopted her. She was nurtured at Kunti Bhoj’s place that is why she became famous in the name of Kunti.

Once, Sage Durvasa came to Kuntibhoj’s house. Kuntibhoj entrusted Kunti with the arrangement of the welcome of Sage Durvasa. Durvasa was pleased with Kunti’s service and so gave her a mantra. On muttering this mantra, she could summon any deity and bear a child from the deity. To test this charm, Kunti summoned for Surya (Sun) even though she was unmarried. With the conjunction of Surya and Kunti, the famous archer Karna was born. Due to the fear of public opinion, Kunti set afloat the child in the river, where the charioteer of the Kauravas, Adhirati found him in the river and nurtured him.

Kunti was married to Pandu, the King of Hastinapur. Once, Pandu was wandering in the jungle. Sage Kimidum was in sexual intercourse with his wife both of whom were in the form of a male and female deer. The female deer died with Pandu’s arrow. At this, the Sage cursed him that the moment he will try to have a physical relation with a woman, he too will die. Pandu became unfit to produce a child. Due to their desire to bear children, Kunti summoned with her mantra the devtas and gave birth to Yudhisthir from Dharma (the lord of Dharma), Bhima from Pavan (the lord of wind) and Arjun from Indra (the lord of devtas in Heaven).Pandu’s Second wife Madri also used this charm and summoned Ashwini Kumars and gave birth to two sons Nakul and Sahadev.

These five sons together were called Pandavas. Kunti preached her sons to abide by the path of duty and fulfill the purpose for which Kshatraanis (ladies of the Kshatriya class) give birth to their children. She was a very strong influence on the life of the Pandavas. She did not want the Kauravas and the Pandavas to fight. She instilled in her children good virtues and taught them the path of righteousness. Kunti is counted as one of the Panchkanyas (according to Puranas they are considered the five Virgins).

After the death of King Pandu, Kunti led a life full of difficulties in spite of which she was very considerate and had great patience. She kept to the path of righteousness and bore the atrocities of Duryodhan silently. She even asked her nephew Lord Krishna for a strange boon that: "O Lord, give us the boon of sorrow for I may perhaps forget you in comforts but in sorrow you will always remain in my mind".

During the war of Mahabharata, when she came to know about Karna’s vow to slay Arjun, she met Karna and asked him not to do so revealing to him the truth that he was the brother of Pandavas. Karna was in great confusion as he could not betray his best friend Duryodhan and at the same time could not disregard his mother’s orders. Finally he promised his mother that including him, five of her sons will always remain alive. In the end, Karna died and the five Pandavas stayed alive.

After the war of Mahabharata, Kunti went to the jungle with Dhritrashtra and his wife Gandhari. There she died due to forest conflagration. Since the very beginning, Kunti's life was an example of abandonment, penance and detachment.