This episode begins with Satyavati now wanting great grandkids so marriages must be arranged Dhritharashtra and Pandu. Bhishma states that Dhritharashtra needs a woman wise enough to perceive the world for him, so he suggests Gandhari the princess of the Gandhar kingdom. Upon arriving there, the king of Gandhar and his crown prince Shakuni oppose this arrangement; wanting to marry Gandhari off to Pandu instead. Gandhari however, accepts the proposal and even go as far as blindfolding herself so she can share in her husbands plight.
After Dhritharashtra and Gandhari wed, Dhritharashtra reveals his resentment for being denied the crown. Gandhari however, attempts to reason with him and calms him down. For now.
Meanwhile, Kunti chooses Pandu to be her husband in a swayamvar, making her the queen of Hastinapur. This causes Dhritharashtra’s resentment to once again bubble up, because he’d hoped that if he couldn’t be king, at least his firstborn son could, if he was born before Pandu and Kunti conceived. Now that Pandu has taken a wife so soon, it’s going to be a race.
Kunti however, momentarily cries as she flashes back to an event from her past. When Durvaasa, a sage with an infamous Hair-Trigger Temper visits her palace, Kunti is deputed to attend to him. Kunti does an excellent job, utterly impressing the irascible sage. In return Durvaasa grants Kunti a boon when she asks for something that can be useful in the future. The boon is a spell that grants her the ability to summon any god from the Hindu pantheon and receive a “gift” from them. A curious Kunti decides to test this boon out on Surya the Sun God. To her horror, she finds out that it is a seduction spell, and that the “gift” of the summoned god is a baby. A horrified Kunti is given a son, Karna who is destined to be brave and charitable. When Kunti invokes Sita’s banishment to complain that her honor will forever be tarnished due to her having a baby out of wedlock, A reassures her that her honor will remain intact because her son Karna has an armor and earrings that make him invincible. Kunti gets the implied message - that she is to dispose of Karna. She does so by placing him in a chest and setting that chest adrift in a river.
Tropes found here are
- Armor of Invincibility: Karna gets body armor and earrings that confer this.
- Call-Back: Kunti brings up Sita’s banishment in the Ramayana, which is set in the same universe as this epic.
- Engagement Challenge: Kunti has one in which she issues no challenge and straightaway picks Pandu.
- Parental Abandonment: Kunti places infant Karna in a box and casts him away in a river.
- The Resenter: Dhritharashtra.
- Someday This Will Come in Handy: Kunti asks for such a boon.
- Voice of Reason: Gandhari to Dhritharashtra.
