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Madri (, ), also known as Madravati (, ), is a legendary character in the Mahabharata, an ancient Itihasa-Purana. 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.
Madri is traditionally viewed as a pativrata (devoted wife), whose beauty and charm are emphasised in the epic and its later adaptations. Madri's death by self-immolation is often cited as the earliest textual attestation of the sati practice; however, due to conflicting verses in the Mahabharata, it has been the subject of varied interpretations, with some scholars disputing the sati account.
Madri's role in the Mahabharata is brief, but significant in advancing the narrative. Her entire life—from her introduction to her death—is recounted in the Adi Parva, the first of eighteen parvas or 'Books' of the Mahabharata. Scholar Alf Hiltebeitel points out that Madri is introduced in verses 105.1–6 of the Adi Parva, as part of a triad of new brides for Kuru dynasty alongside Kunti and Gandhari. In the section spanning from 103.9 to 119.12, Kunti is allotted 195 verses, Gandhari 36 and Madri 85, not counting descriptions of their sons at birth. This allocation not only emphasizes Kunti's rising narrative prominence but also marks the first appearance of conjugal rivalry among co-wives in the epic's generational structure—where Madri soon emerges as Kunti's main rival. Despite her early death in the first book, Madri continues to be mentioned in subsequent parvas.
Additionally, a cognate epithet, Mādravatī, frequently appears in reference to Madri, though it also denotes the Madravati in epic literature. Another epithet, Madrarājasutā, meaning 'daughter of the king of Madra', is also used to refer to her. Madri belonged to the Bahlikas clan, originating from Balkh in Bactria; as such, she is also called Bāhlikī in few instances in the epic Mahabharata. When Madri is introduced in the epic, she is described as rūpeṇāsadṛśī, literally 'unparalleled in beauty'.
Pandu has a first wife, Kunti, with whom Madri shares an amicable relationship, despite an underlying rivalry between the two.
Madri, in a private moment with Pandu, expresses her sorrow at being childless, despite holding equal status with Kunti. She acknowledges with a sense of consolation that fate had granted her husband an heir through Kunti, but she adds that it would benefit Pandu's lineage, if she could also bear children. Madri concludes that being Kunti's 'rival', she can't approach her directly and requests Pandu to convince her to share the mantra for help in bearing a child. The unabridged recensions of the Mahabharata present a more detailed conversation that further reveals Madri's sense of envy. While expressing her fear of remaining barren, Madri confides in Pandu that, despite considering herself superior to Kunti by birth, she feels overshadowed by Kunti in both Pandu's affections and the dynamics of the household.
Upon Pandu's request, Kunti generously shares the mantra with Madri, who invokes the youthful twin-gods of medicine, collectively known as the Ashwini Kumaras, to beget Nakula and Sahadeva at once. The (lit. 'sons of Kunti') and (lit. 'sons of Madri') are raised together in the hermitage, and they are collectively referred to as the .
After some time, Madri, through Pandu, asks Kunti for the assistance to bear more children. However, Kunti firmly refuses the request, expressing her frustration by noting that Madri had "deceived" her by using a single mantra to gain two sons. She voices her regret, fearing that Madri might end up with more children than herself, and admitted she would have also summoned the Ashvins to obtain twins had she known. Concluding her response, Kunti insists that Pandu not come to her again with requests to share Madri the mantra.
Madri, however, resists Kunti's request, stating that she feels bound to Pandu by an unfulfilled union, as he approached her in desire at the time of his death. Madri expresses her wish to follow Pandu into the afterlife to fulfill his desire, also fearing she might not be able to raise Kunti's children with equal dedication and affection. She appeals to Kunti to care for her own children, Nakula and Sahadeva, in her absence, trusting in Kunti's ability to provide for them impartially. During Pandu's funeral, Madri jumps into Pandu's burning pyre, thus performing the act of sati. The Critical Edition of the Mahabharata presents a brief exchange between Kunti and Madri, after which it simply states that "the daughter of the king of the Madras, Pandu's revered wife, follows the noble one onto his funeral pyre." In contrast, the Southern Recension offers additional details, describing how the sages and the "foremost Brahmanas" attempt to dissuade both Kunti and Madri from their intent to perform sati. The Southern Edition also adds a dialogue between Madri and Yudhishthira, in which she implores Yudhishthira to take care of his younger brothers like a father.
However, the account of sati is contradicted by the very next stanza, which states that seventeen days after Pandu's death, her dead body and that of her husband are handed over by sages to the Kaurava elders in for the funeral rites. Dhritarashtra, the king of Kuru and Pandu's elder brother, arranges a grand royal funeral for both Pandu and Madri in the capital. As described in detail, corpses of Madri and Pandu are dressed modestly in fine cotton clothes and smeared with sandalwood paste and other sweet scents before being cremated on same funeral pyre.
The Svargarohana Parva (the last book of the Mahabharata) mentions that in the afterlife, Madri's soul resides in the svarga of the god Indra.
Although Kunti and Madri mostly shared an amicable relationship, the rivalry and envy between them illustrate a common dynamic in polygamous settings. According to Alf Hiltebeitel, while Kunti and Madri initially appear as dharmapatni (lawful wives) united in loyalty toward Pandu, their latent rivalry is activated after Madri's speech to Pandu and continues to intensify thereafter. According to Baisakhi Ghosh, a Sanskrit scholar and author, their rivalry stemmed from Kunti's belief that Madri was favored by the king due to her beauty, while Madri felt that Kunti, as the chief queen, held a status she herself deserved, fueled by her conviction that she equalled or exceeded Kunti. Bhattacharya positions Madri within a broader pattern of dependent female characters in the Mahabharata—like Ambika, Ambalika, and Gandhari—who conform to social or marital expectations, contrasting them with powerful Panchakanya like Kunti, Draupadi, and Satyavati, who shape the epic's narrative. Mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik further highlights the distinction of prominence between the two co-wives, noting that while Kunti's sons—Yudhishthira, Bhima, and Arjuna—become central figures in the epic, Madri's twins, Nakula and Sahadeva, play relatively minor roles. J. A. B. van Buitenen, translator of the Critical Edition, views Madri as holding a lower status than Kunti, citing her Bahlika origin and the fact that she was purchased by Bhishma as a secondary consort—unlike Kunti, who chose Pandu in her own svayamvara (self-choice ceremony). However, Lakshmi Telidevara highlights that in other recensions of the epic, Madri herself asserts birth into a lineage superior to Kunti's, possibly referencing Kunti's Yadava background. Hiltebeitel notes that the payment of a bride price is revealed by Shalya as a Madra custom, classifying it as a asura marriage.
Sociologist Iravati Karve regards Madri as a tragic figure, but notes that in her short life, Madri enjoys the pleasures of traditional womanhood and achieves liberation from the more burdensome existence borne by Kunti, who faces numerous hardships and intrigues, while assuming the responsibility of nurturing Madri's children—Nakula and Sahadeva—often with greater devotion than she extends to her own. Bhattacharya sees Madri's ultimate recognition of Kunti's nobility and superiority in resilience, leadership and impartiality as an honest tribute to her own limitations, reflecting her lack of the "firmness of will" needed to overcome rivalry and ego. Telidevara considers it Madri's redemption as a character, where she recognizes her earlier narrow-mindedness toward Kunti and is able to shed it before departing as Pandu's loving wife.
However, due to the contradiction found in the texts, some scholars have also questioned the authenticity of the sati account. While the scene is included in the Critical Edition of the Mahabharata, V. S. Sukthankar, the General Editor of the Critical Edition, expressed his dissatisfaction with Nilakantha's interpretation and acknowledged the internal contradictions and the challenge of reconciling the two accounts—since both conflicting accounts are found in all manuscripts, both were included in the Critical Edition. Drawing on the views of Edward Washburn Hopkins, Sukthankar highlights details such as the anointing and dressing of Pandu's body and a verse that states he appeared as though alive ( Mahābhārata 1.118.20), implying that no cremation had yet occurred. He adds that after Pandu had been burned with Madri on the funeral pyre, there could not have been, much of a corpse left—certainly not enough to dress and anoint with sandal paste.
M. A. Mehendale, a scholar affiliated with BORI, rejects Nilakantha's explanation, emphasizing that the dual number in the Sanskrit text denotes two complete bodies. He argues that the conflicting accounts arise from textual conflation caused by an interpolation—where an external narrative was inserted without regard for internal consistency. Based on internal and external evidence, Mehendale suggests that the verses describing Madri's self-immolation are likely later additions to the epic. He also theorizes the existence of now-lost verses that may have described Madri's death, with both bodies preserved during the seventeen-day journey from Shatashringa to Hastinapura. In contrast, Sadashiv A. Dange questions the plausibility of preserving corpses for seventeen days and challenges Mehendale's assumptions by referring to Antyesti. In these contexts, a symbolic "body" was often a ceremonial object used in secondary cremations, especially for those who died far from home, eliminating any contradiction with the earlier account of Madri's sati. He argues that the term śarīra can also denote ritual substitutes—such as urns (kumbha) filled with bones or effigies made of twigs and barley paste. Dange interprets the "two bodies" brought to Hastinapura as such symbolic constructs. In response, Mehendale finds this interpretation unconvincing, maintaining that the text repeatedly implies the presence of complete bodies rather than symbolic remains. He proposes that the sages transporting them were rishi-—supernatural beings capable of preserving the dead. Mehendale ultimately reasserts that the account in which Madri dies naturally—perhaps from shock following Pandu's death—is more likely the original version, supported by the fact that sati is absent among Kuru kingdom, Panchala, and Matsya women.
Devdutt Pattanaik supports the theory of interpolation and argues that such inconsistencies reflect later cultural and textual interpolations during the medieval period. The discrepancies suggest that later writers may have modified the scenes to reflect medieval values that promoted widow immolation as a mark of honor and loyalty. Regarding the alternative account, Pattanaik suggests that if Madri's body was indeed delivered to Hastinapur, it is likely she died immediately alongside Pandu due to the curse placed on him by the sage, since Pandu's arrows had killed both the sage and his wife.
Madri also appears in the Jain retellings of the Mahabharata, most notably in Devaprabhasuri's Pandavacharita. In folktales and regional adaptations across the subcontinent, Madri appears in prominence in the Pandav Lila—a traditional performance art in the Garhwal division of Uttarakhand—and Sarala Mahabharata—15th century Odia people retelling by Sarala Das. However, her portrayal and story deviate significantly from the epic narrative.
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