Sages & Others
Kadru
कद्रू
Mother of Serpents
Who was Kadru?
Kadru (कद्रू): Mother of Serpents, one of the sages and supporting figures in the Mahabharata. Wife of Kashyapa and mother of the thousand nagas.
Quick Facts
| Sanskrit name | कद्रू |
|---|---|
| Title / Epithet | Mother of Serpents |
| Faction | Sages & Others |
| Key traits | cunning, ambitious, ruthless |
| Featured in | 8 stories |
About Kadru
Wife of Kashyapa and mother of the thousand nagas. By a deceitful wager over the color of the divine horse Uchchaihshravas she enslaved her sister Vinata, setting bird and serpent at eternal enmity.
In Their Words
Look again at the horse's tail, sister - and remember our wager.
Kadru
Traits
- cunning
- ambitious
- ruthless
Story Appearances
Stories Featuring Kadru
7 further tales on this site name Kadru, in canonical reading order.
- The Elephant and the TortoiseTwo brothers who could not divide a house
- Garuda's Pact and the Forked TonguesHow the snakes lost the nectar and got their split tongues
- The Lineages of Gods and DemonsVaishampayana recites the descent of every creature from Brahma and the daughters of Daksha
- The Wager Over the Horse's TailHow the serpents and the birds became enemies
- The Thunderbolt and the Seizers of ChildrenWhat came out of the wound, and the bargain that followed
- How the Krittikas Took Abhijit's PlaceA star leaves the sky in envy of her elder sister, and Skanda's six nurses are raised into the empty station
- The Names That Cleanse SinAsked what destroys sin, Bhishma answers with a litany of gods, rivers, mountains, sages and kings
Places in Kadru's Story
Drawn from the stories Kadru appears in.
Related Characters
Others counted among the Sages & Others.