King Shantanu Adopts, Names, and Rears the Twins
King Shantanu finds newborn twins lying with weapons in a reed bed. Acting out of compassion, he adopts them, names them for that very virtue, and raises them as his own — until their true father returns to complete their extraordinary education.
King Shantanu was on a hunt when one of his soldiers found something extraordinary in the forest: newborn twins lying in a clump of reeds. A bow and arrows were arranged around them, and a black deerskin lay nearby. The soldier deduced these were the sons of a Brahmana learned in Dhanur Veda. He brought the infants and the weapons to the king.
Shantanu looked at the children. Out of compassion — kripa — he adopted them. He took them home, declaring they were like his own children. He performed all the usual rites for them and began to rear them in his palace.
Because they had been reared out of compassion, the lord of the earth decided to name them accordingly. The boy was named Kripa. The girl was named Kripi.
Their biological father, Sharadvat, had left the forest after the incident with the apsara. Through the power of his austerities, he came to know where his children were, though no one else knew the secret. He went to Shantanu’s court and revealed everything: his own lineage and his relation to the twins.
Then Sharadvat, now a supreme expert in Dhanur Veda, completed their education. He taught Kripa the four parts of the weapon science and the usage of many different kinds of arms, including all their secrets. Under that tutelage, Kripa soon became a great teacher himself. All the maharathas (great chariot-warriors) learned Dhanur Veda from him — Dhritarashtra’s sons, the immensely powerful Pandavas, the Vrishnis, and kings who assembled from many countries.