01Found in the reeds
The sage Sharadvan Gautama was born with arrows in his hand, and cared more for the science of the bow than for the Vedas. His tapas frightened Indra, who sent an apsara to break it. At the sight of her his seed fell on a clump of reeds, split in two, and from it were born a boy and a girl. A soldier of King Shantanu found them beside a bow and a deerskin, and the king took them home out of kripa, compassion, and named them Kripa and Kripi. Sharadvan later taught his son the four branches of archery in secret, and Kripa became the first teacher of the Kuru princes, before Drona came.
02A Kaurava to the end
Kripi married Drona, and Kripa stayed at Hastinapura as the family’s preceptor. When the Kauravas raided Virata’s cattle and Karna boasted that he alone would beat Arjuna, Kripa told him plainly that he was talking nonsense. He fought for Duryodhana all eighteen days and was one of three Kaurava warriors left alive at the end. That night he advised Ashvatthama to wait and to ask Dhritarashtra, Gandhari and Vidura what should be done. Ashvatthama would not listen, and Kripa followed him and stood guard at the gate of the Pandava camp while the slaughter went on inside.
03Teacher of Parikshit
After the war he made his peace with the Pandavas and lived on at Hastinapura. When Yudhishthira set out on the great departure, he placed Parikshit under Kripa’s teaching, so the old preceptor who had taught Arjuna as a boy taught Arjuna’s grandson too. Kripa is one of the seven named in the well-known shloka of the Chiranjivis, the ever-living, with Ashvatthama, Bali, Vyasa, Hanuman, Vibhishana and Parashurama. The Bhagavata Purana names him among the seven rishis of the coming Savarni Manvantara.