See Gunaddhya.

A warrior in Skanda’s army as per Mahabharata Shalyaparva Chapter 45 verse 67.

A puruvanshi king. He was the son of Sandhurodha’s brother, Pratiratha. Sandhurodha was the father of Dushyanta. As per Agnipurana, he had a son named Medhathithi.

A sage who was the foster father of Shakuntala. Among the rishikulas, Kanva’s kula was a very important one as per Rigveda. Born in the dynasty of Brahma’s son Kashyapa, Kanva is also known as Kaashyapa. As per Mahabharata Shantiparva Chapter 208 verse 27, Kanva’s father was Medhadhiti. Kanva built a hermitage on the banks of Malini and lived there with many students.

Kanva’s hermitage was to the north of the river Praveni, on the banks of the Malini as per Mahabharata Vanaparva. It is believed that it was located on the banks of the Chambal, 4 miles south of Kota in Rajasthan. The hermitage has been described by Kalidasa in Shakuntalam.

Once Indra sent Menaka to disrupt Vishwamitra’s meditation. They had a daughter who was left in the forest to fend for itself. The child was Shakuntala and was called so because of the Shakunta birds who fed her for a while. As per Mahabharata Adiparva Chapter 70, Kanva happened to see her in the forest and began raising her.

As per Mahabharata Adiparva Chapter 74 verse 130, Bharata, son of Dushyanta, conducted a yajna called Govitata with Kanva as the chief sage.

Once Kanva narrated to Duryodhana, the story of Matali and his wife Sudharma hunting for a groom for their daughter Gunakeshi as per Mahabharata Udyogaparva Chapter 97.

Kanva was among the sages who arrived from the east to visit Rama after his return from Lanka. Vasishta, Atri, Vishwamitra, Gautama, Jamadagni, Bharadwaja, Sanakas, Sharabhanga, Durvasa, Matanga, Vibhandaka, Tumburu were the others in this group.

The Rigveda has 10 mandalas. Mandalas 2-7 have been created in separate rishikulas, as 2 – Bhargava, 3 – Vishwamitra, 4 – Vamadeva, 5- Atri, 6 – Bharadwaja, 7 – Vasishta. The eighth mandala and 50 suktas of the 1st mandala have been made by Kanva’s kula.

Rigveda Mandala 1 Anuvaka 4 Sukta 12, Kanva is about Kanva’s son Medhathithi becoming a rishi.

As per the Kathasaritasagara, Kanva had a daughter with Menaka called Indivaraprabhu. See Chandravaloka, Kaashyapa.

Skanda’s attendant as per Mahabharata Shalyaparva Chapter 46 verse 14.

A sage in ancient India. He was the father of Marisha (Varkshi), the wife of Prachetas.

It is believed that Marisha was born from the trees. Kandu built a hermitage on the banks of the Gomati and meditated there. To distract him, Indra sent an apsara named Pramlocha. The sage ended up marrying her and lived with her for a hundred years in the foothills of the Mandara mountains. After that Pramlocha sought permission from him to go back to devaloka. He asked her to wait for a while and they lived together for a hundred more years. She again asked for permission and was asked to wait, which turned out to be another hundred years. This went on for many centuries and the sage continued to be passionately in love with the apsara.

Once the sage got ready to leave his hermitage when Pramlocha asked him where he was off to. The sage told her that he was going for his evening prayers. Pramlocha commented that he had been ignoring it for several years now. Kandu replied that she had arrived at the hermitage only in the morning to which Pramlocha said that it had been many centuries since that morning. The sage asked her how long he had been with her and she replied that it had been 907 years 6 months and 3 days.

The sage was very angry and began scolding her. She started sweating profusely in fear and the sage asked her to leave. As she flew up towards devaloka, she wiped her sweat using some tree leaves and the sage’s seed which was already in her fell on them too. With the help of Vayu, the trees delivered that child who came to be known as Marisha as per Vishnupurana Ansh 1 Chapter 15.

There is a story in the Ramayana on how Hanuman and other vanaras who had set out in search of Sita ended in a desert which was created by Kandu’s curse. The place used to be a forest earlier and Kandu’s sixteen year old son had died there. The sage cursed the forest and made it a desert as per Ramayana Kishkindakanda Chapter 48.

When Rama became king, he was visited by sages from across the land. from the south came Dattatreya, Namuchi, Pramuchi, Valmiki, Soma, Kandu and Agastya as per Uttararamayana.

A sage. The valiant king Brahmadatta was born in his dynasty as per Mahabharata Shantiparva Chapter 342.

An attendant of Skanda as per Mahabharata Shalyaparva Chapter 46 verse 16.

A shrewd brahmin born in the dynasty of Bharadwaja. He was an advisor to Shatrunjaya, king of Sauvira as per Mahabharata Shantiparva Chapter 140.

One of Dhritarashtra’s ministers. He was a very shrewd politician and the advice he gave the king was known as Kanika’s Kutaneeti.

Once Dhritarashtra asked Kanika how to kill enemies using Sama, Dana, Bheda, Danda. He said that cowards should be made to feel scared, the brave should be made to feel comfortable and then killed by guile, the greedy should be dealt with using money, and if an enemy, he should be killed whether it be son, brother, friend, father or teacher. ONe should not utter words in anger and should not believe the words of those trusted or mistrusted.

Once Kanika told Dhritarashtra a story. There once lived a crafty jackal in the forest who wanted to eat the king of the forest – the lion. He took the help of a tiger, a rat, a fox and a mongoose. He asked the rat to gnaw away the lion’s feet while he was sleeping and asked the tiger to then kill the lame lion. They killed the lion and as per the jackal’s advice decided to eat it after a bath. The jackal guarded the body while they bathed. The tiger returned first. The jackal pretended to be sad and when the tiger asked for the reason, he said that the rat had claimed that he had killed the lion. Considering that, the jackal said that his pride didn’t allow him to eat the lion’s meat. On hearing this, the tiger said he was going away to see if he could hunt a lion on his own. The rat arrived next and the jackal told him that the mongoose had refused to eat the meat since it was poison and had wanted the rat to eat it and die. The rat too left on hearing this. When the fox arrived to eat the meat, the jackal told him that another lion was planning to attack them and that he should do the needful. The fox ran away. When the mongoose came for its share, the jackal chased him away and had the lion’s meat all to himself.

Kanika told this to Dhritarashtra as an advice to win over his enemies as per Mahabharata Adiparva Chapter 139.