We all know the famous Rig Vedic Story of the Indra and Vritra battle. How Indra killed Vritra with his thunderbolt. but while reading Markandey Puran, I found the Vritra whom Indra killed was the reason for the birth of five Pandavas.
The story from Markendey Purana
Frightened by the severe penance of Trishira, Indra killed him to protect his authority and power. But the sin of killing a Brahmin took away Indra’s radiance. Trishira was the son of Twashta. Twashta became furious at his son’s death. He plucked one strand of hair from his hair-lock and offered it in the sacrificial fire. This resulted in the creation of a formidable and strong demon named Vritrasur. This demon was created with the objective of killing Indra. Learning about the birth of Vritrasur, Indra sent Saptarishis as emissaries to work out a pact with the demon. The Saptarishis affected the friendship between Indra and Vritrasur. But Indra had other ideas.
He took Vritrasur by surprise and killed him. This deceitful action of Indra further enraged the clans of the demons. Soon the atrocities of the demons increased to unbearable limits. Even Prithvi felt unable to bear the burden of their atrocities. She approached the deities and requested them to get her rid of the burden.
Thus, to relieve Prithvi of her burden, the deities began to take an incarnation on earth. Dharma and Vayu implanted Indra’s radiance in the womb of Kunti. This resulted in the birth of Yudhishthir and Bheema. Then Indra himself produced Arjuna from Kunti. Nakul and Sahadev were born because of Indra’s radiance implanted by Ashwini Kumars in the womb of Madri. Thus all the five Pandavas originated from the same source even though they appeared as distinct entities, whereas Draupadi was none other than Shuchi, the wife of Indra, produced from the altar in Drupad’s palace. In the human incarnation, Draupadi got five Pandavas as her husband.
