Who was the mother of Nakula and Sahadeva?

Madri was the mother of Nakula and Sahadeva. She was the second wife of Pandu, the Kuru king, and a princess of the Madra kingdom.

Pandu could not father children because of a curse: he would die if he approached a wife with sexual desire. His first wife, Kunti, possessed a mantra received from the sage Durvasa that allowed her to invoke a deity and have a child. At Pandu’s request, Kunti shared the mantra with Madri.

Madri invoked the Ashvins, the divine twin physicians, and conceived twins in a single invocation. These sons were Nakula and Sahadeva, who became the fourth and fifth Pandava brothers. Their divine parentage is why they are sometimes called sons of the Ashvins, while Madri is their human mother.

After Pandu died in the forest, Madri entrusted the twins to Kunti’s care and died with her husband according to the traditional account. Kunti then raised all five Pandavas together, so later retellings may describe her as the boys’ adoptive or foster mother, but Madri remains their birth mother.