Maternal Aunts (Mousi’s) Of Mahabharata

This is the Part II and continuation of series Relationships In Mahabharata. Please go through the Part I of this series before reading this article.

After defining all the Mamu’s of Mahabharat we will define all the Mousi’s which is the Hindi Language word for Maternal Aunt (Sister of Someone’s Mother). This falls under recursion relation which means for any two sisters they will became Maternal Aunt of other sister’s children. Its ok this seems too complicated, you will figure this out while reading this article itself.

S.No	Mousi	Of	Details
1.	Amba	Pandu, Dhritarasthra	She was taken by force along with her sisters Ambika and Ambalika from their Swayamvara by Bhisma to marry Vichitravirya.  Vichtravirya married only her sisters. Ambika and Ambalika is the Mother of Dhritarastra and Pandu respectively.
2.	Shikhandini	Upapandavas	Shikhandini was born originally as girl to king Dhrupad and was sister of Droupadi. She was reincarnation of Amba borned to kill Bhisma. She performed austerities in the forest and was transformed into a male named Shikhandi (शिखंडी) which caused the death of Bhisma.
3.	Ambika	Pandu	As mentioned above Amba, Ambika and Ambalika were biological sisters and Pandu been borned from Ambalika so that makes Ambika as his Maternal Aunt. The relationship got complicated when both the sisters got married to Vichtravirya, and Pandu and Dhritarastra actually are son of Ved Vyasa and born through Niyoga.
4.	Ambalika	Dhritarasthra	It’s like same as above. Ambika is the mother of Dhritarastra and that makes Ambalika his Maternal Aunt.
5.	Kunti	Shishupal (शिशुपाल)	Kunti and Srutakriti are sisters. Whereas Kunti becomes foster daughter of king Kunti Bhoja  and Srutakirti stays with their biological father Shurasena. Srutakriti married Damaghosh and they had only son named Shishupal. This relation makes Kunti as Maternal Aunt of Shishupal
6.	Srutakriti	Yudhistira, Bhima, Arjuna and Karna	Similarly Kunti married Pandu and their three sons among five are born from Kunti. Also Karna born from Kunti before marriage. The relationship mentioned in last point makes Strutakriti Maternal Aunt or Mousi of Yudhistira, Bhima, Arjuna and Karna
7.	Draupadi	Kshatradeva	Srikhandini’s sister Draupadi who is common wife of Panadavas and the mother of Upandavas is also Maternal Aunt of Srikhandini’s Son Kshatradeva.

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©Tapas Majumdar