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
