01Son of the Ashvins
Kunti gave Madri the mantra only once. Madri thought of the twin Ashvins, physicians of the devas, and bore twin sons; Nakula was the elder. When Pandu died, Madri chose to follow him into the fire and gave her boys to Kunti, and Kunti raised them as her own. Nakula was counted the handsomest man of his day. Besides Draupadi, who bore him Shatanika, he married Karenumati, a princess of Chedi.
02The western conquest
Before the Rajasuya each brother went out to a quarter of the earth. Nakula went west with a great army, through Rohitaka and the lands of the Trigartas and the desert peoples, to Shakala, the city of the Madras. There his uncle Shalya, Madri’s brother, received him with affection and gave him great wealth. Kings to the far west and along the coast sent tribute. In the year in disguise at Virata’s court he was Granthika, the keeper of horses, and told the king that no horse he trained would ever be vicious or tire.
03Chosen at the lake
Nakula was the first to reach the Yaksha’s lake and the first to fall there. When the Yaksha offered Yudhishthira one brother back, he passed over Bhima and Arjuna and chose Nakula: Kunti had a son living in himself, and Madri should have one too. In the war Nakula fought Karna on the sixteenth day and lost; Karna had him at his mercy and let him go, remembering his promise to Kunti. On the road to the Himalaya he fell after Sahadeva, and Yudhishthira said it was because he had thought no one his equal in beauty.