Vara (vara)

A vara is a boon, granted by a god or a gratified sage and generally as binding on the giver as a curse is on the receiver. The Mahabharata is built out of them: Kunti's mantra from Durvasa produces five sons and one abandoned child, Gandhari's hundred sons come from Vyasa, Shantanu gives his son the power to choose the hour of his death, and Duryodhana's body is made adamant everywhere his mother's eyes fell. Almost every boon in the epic turns out to have an edge the recipient did not think to ask about.