Kunti did not know his [Karna's] fate till years later, when she was not in a position to acknowledge him as her son. The son, on his part, never forgave the mother for having abandoned him. From the minute of his birth to well after his death this child was a constant source of dread and sorrow to the mother.

In Hindu mythology, Kunti (Sanskrit: कुंती Kuntī) also called Pritha, was the biological daughter of Shurasena, the sister of Vasudeva, the foster daughter of her cousin King Kunti-Bhoja, the wife of King Pandu of Hastinapur and the mother of Karna, and King Yudhisthira of Indraprastha. Before Kunti married Pandu, she bore Karna to Surya, the solar deity. The ambiguous emotions Karna felt about his birth mother play an important role in the Mahabharata. She later married Pandu and bore Yudhisthira, Bhima and Arjuna. After the death of her husband, Kunti did not commit sati, but his other wife Madri did. Kunti took care of Nakula and Sahadeva, the sons of Madri, as her own sons. Kunti perished in a forest fire in the Himalayas with her brother-in-law King Dhritarashtra and his wife Gandhari and attained heaven.