The King Who Found Them
King Shantanu of Hastinapur, the same king who would later father Bhishma with the river goddess Ganga, was out hunting when he came across the two abandoned infants in the reeds, along with the bow and arrows left beside them.
Moved by the sight, and reading the presence of weapons as a sign the children were meant for a life of skill and status rather than ordinary obscurity, Shantanu took them back to his palace and raised them as his own. He gave them names built from the same root as their father's abandoned compassion, or in another reading from the kripa, mercy, shown to them: Kripa for the boy, Kripi for the girl.
Sharadvan, learning later through his own ascetic insight what had become of his children, appeared before Shantanu's court and revealed the full story of their true parentage, including his own name and lineage, then taught Kripa the full science of weapons and the Vedas himself before returning to his forest life, leaving the children to grow up at Hastinapur's court as Shantanu's wards rather than reclaiming them outright.
What Two Lives From a Clump of Reeds Became
Kripa grew up to become Kripacharya, a senior teacher of weapons at the Kuru court, instructing both Pandava and Kaurava princes before Drona's arrival and remaining a fixture of the court through both generations. He is one of the seven chiranjivis, the immortals of Hindu tradition, and one of the very few major warriors to survive the entire Kurukshetra war on either side, later serving as a teacher to Parikshit, the sole surviving heir of the Pandava line.
Kripi married Drona, becoming the mother of Ashwatthama, which ties her own reed-born origin directly into the fire-born origin of Dhrishtadyumna and Draupadi on the opposing side of the same eventual war, three of the epic's most consequential births in one small cluster of unusual origin stories that all lead, eventually, to the same battlefield.
The episode is often read alongside Drona's own pot-birth as evidence of how many of the Mahabharata's central figures arrive in the world through disrupted, non-ordinary circumstances rather than settled family lines, and how often a king's compassion, or a sage's shame, ends up quietly determining who grows up to shape a war neither of them lived to see the end of.
Common Questions From Devotees
Why is Kripa considered one of the immortals (chiranjivis)?+
Hindu tradition lists Kripa among the seven chiranjivis, figures believed to remain alive across ages, alongside others such as Ashwatthama, Hanuman, and Parashurama. His role as a teacher who survives the Kurukshetra war and continues guiding Parikshit afterward fits this long, ongoing presence the tradition assigns him.
How is Kripi related to Ashwatthama?+
Kripi is Ashwatthama's mother, having married Drona, the weapons teacher, after growing up at Shantanu's court alongside her twin brother Kripa.
Did Sharadvan ever raise Kripa and Kripi himself?+
No. He left them where they were formed, ashamed at the circumstances of their conception, and only returned once Shantanu had already taken them in, at which point he revealed their parentage and personally taught Kripa before withdrawing again to his ascetic life in the forest.
About the author
Anjali Mehta · Editor, M.A. Religious Studies
Anjali is the managing editor for Vandnaa and oversees the festival and vrat coverage. She holds an M.A. in Religious Studies and reviews every published article for accuracy, accessibility, and tradition-fidelity.
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