In the Hindu epic Mahabharata, Uttarā or Anglicized as Uttara (उत्तरा) was the daughter of King Virata, at whose court the Pandavas spent a year in concealment during their exile. She was the sister of Uttara.[1]
It is also believed that Uttara had learnt dance from Arjuna as a princess during the 13th year of exile of the Pandavas in Virata's kingdom when Arjuna lived a life of a eunuch and practised his art of dance learnt from the apsaras in heavens. It is during this phase that Arjuna admired Uttara's qualities and later proposed her marriage to his son Abhimanyu.
Uttara married Arjuna's son Abhimanyu. She was widowed at a very young age when Abhimanyu was killed in the Kurukshetra war. When Abhimanyu died, Uttara tried to burn herself on the pyre of Abhimanyu but Krishna stopped her from doing so informing her of her pregnancy. Ashwathama (son of Dronacharya) tried to harm the child in Uttara's womb. He shoot Brahmaastra on Uttara, but again Krishna saves her. Her son, Parikshit, was the sole surviving dynasty of the Kuru clan and eventually became king of Hastinapura.
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