Week 9 Storytelling: The Link

The Link

Kunti. Source

Kunti, the wife of Pandu, took charge of the palace and offered hospitality to visitors. One day, there was a sage named Durvasa that visited her and as always, Kunti offered her hospitality. Durvasa felt as if Kunti’s services were beyond his expectations and gave her a Mantra. The way that the Mantra worked was simple. Durvasa said, “Whichever god you think of while chanting this Mantra will appear in front of you in human form and practically be your slave. In the morning, the god will leave and place a son of himself in your womb.”

Kunti could feel that power of the Mantra within herself but for some reason she was skeptical. She tested the Mantra one day while thinking of the sun god, but she did not expect anything to actually happen. She was shocked when the sun god actually appeared. She said, “I did not want you to actually show up! I was just testing the Mantra given to me by sage Durvasa.” The sun god simply said that he could leave. Kunti refused and wanted the sun god to stay. By the morning, the sun god left Kunti with a child that had earrings and armor on. Kunti did not know what to do with the child, so she simply put him in a basket and sent him floating down the river. This child was the famous Karna.

The sun god appearing after Kunti's Mantra. Source

Throughout the next few weeks, Kunti did similar practices to get herself and her husband a family since they could not naturally have children. She had Yudhistir born by Yama, Arjuna born by Indra, Bheema born by Vayu, and finally Nakula and Shahadeva born by the Ashwins. The reason that two were born to the Ashwins was simply because they are divine twin horsemen and each brother left a child. This family ended up becoming the famous group of brothers known as the Pandavas.

She had promised to herself and her husband that she would no longer use the Mantra to bear children because it seemed completely unfair to others who could not have children on their own. After the passing of Pandu, Kunti had a random thought. “I have only ever called upon gods with the Mantra, but what if I called down a goddess,” she thought.

Thinking of who she should summon in front of her, or if she should even do it at all, her palace was robbed and she felt somewhat helpless herself. She decided to call upon the goddess, Durga. Durga is the warrior goddess that battles evil and demonic forces. She is a fearless goddess that carries weapons into battle while riding on a lion or tiger.

Kunti decided on Durga because if a child was born, she believed the child could help defend the palace. When Durga appeared, neither of the two really knew what would happen. In the morning, as usual, the goddess disappeared. Kunti could hear a baby crying but there was not a baby to be seen. The odd thing was that the baby crying was not a boy; it was a girl.

Durga, the warrior goddess. Source

Kunti fainted. While she was on the ground and slowly losing life, she had visions in her head that the baby was sent somewhere else. It appeared like a completely different time and place. There were skyscrapers and cars, something she did not recognize at all. At the end of her vision, and the end of her life, she saw a baby girl crying in a woven basket at the doorstep of a house in a metropolitan. This crying baby is known as Wonder Woman. 

Baby Wonder Woman. Source

Author’s Note:

This story is a prequel to my Week 3 Story: The Meeting.

The reason that I wanted to write this prequel was to give a reason that the Hindu stories are somehow linked to Wonder Woman. In the original story, The Meeting, Rama was transported through a portal into a metropolitan. He ultimately met Wonder Woman and fought enemies together. I did not feel that it really made too much sense with Rama just randomly being sent to Wonder Woman, so I wanted to create a link between the two settings.

This story is based off the story of Kunti and her Mantra. She was given the Mantra by the sage, Durvasa. Anytime that the Mantra was used, a human form of the god she was thinking about would appear in front of her. In the story, she always summoned males and that left her with a son. In this story, I had her call down Durga, who is a goddess. Since children are normally born between a male and a female there was something that went wrong with using this Mantra. A baby was born, but she was sent to a different dimension. In addition, the baby was a girl instead of a boy because Durga was a female. The baby that was sent to the different dimension was Wonder Woman and that is “The Link” between the two settings.

Pikapost. link to the website.
Mahabharata Online Films, link to the online videos