The Mahabharata

Part 1 : The first Generation Shantanu, the Hastinapura ruler, had a brief relationship with the goddess Ganga and gives birth to a son named Devavrata (later known as Bhishma, a great warrior), who succeeds his father as the heir apparent. Years later, while out hunting, King Shantanu comes upon Satyavati, the daughter of the chief fisherman, and asks her father for his daughter's hand in marriage. Unless Shantanu agrees to make any future son of Satyavati the king following his death, her father will not approve of the marriage. Devavrata consents to give up his claim to the kingdom in order to get his father out of his predicament. Devavrata also takes a vow of lifelong celibacy to ensure his father's commitment, as the fisherman is unsure about the prince's children keeping the promise. Chitrangada and Vichitravirya, Shantanu's two sons through Satyavati, are brothers. Chitrangada succeeds Shantanu as king after his passing. He passes away after a brief, boring life. The younger son, Vichitravirya, is in charge of Hastinapura. In the meantime, the King of K organizes a swayamvara for his three daughters without inviting the Hastinapur royal family. Bhishma visits the swayamvara of the three princesses Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika without permission and then proceeds to kidnap them in order to set up the marriage of young Vichitravirya. Vichitravirya has Ambika's and Ambalika's consent to their union. However, the oldest princess Amba informs Bhishma that she wishes to wed the Shalva king whom Bhishma had vanquished at their swayamvara. She is permitted to leave by Bhishma so that she can wed the king of Shalva, but Shalva rejects him because he still feels humiliated by Bhishma. Amba then goes back to ask Bhishma to marry her, but he declines because of his vow of celibacy. As a result of her fury, Amba turns into Bhishma's fiercest foe and holds him accountable for her predicament. She later gives birth to King Drupada as Shikhandi (or Shikhandini) and, with Arjuna's assistance, brings about Bhishma's defeat in the battle of Kurukshetra. Part 2 The Pandava and Kaurava princes Satyavati asks her first son Vyasa to have children with the widows after Vichitravirya passes away young and without any heirs. Because Ambika, the oldest, closes her eyes when she sees him, Dhritarashtra is born blind. Ambalika becomes pale and bloodless when she sees him, and as a result, her son Pandu is born underweight and pallid. Satyavati encourages Vyasa to try again because the first two children were physically difficult. Instead of sending their maid, Ambika and Ambalika go to Vyasa's chamber. Vidura is Vyasa's third child with the maid. He is a healthy newborn who develops into one of the Mahabharata's most learned characters. He is the King Pandu and King Dhritarashtra's Prime Minister. When the princes are adults, Vidura steps in and uses his political acumen to argue that a blind person cannot be king as Dhritarashtra is about to be proclaimed king by Bhishma. This is so that a blind man cannot protect and manage his people. Due to Dhritarashtra's blindness, the monarchy is then transferred to Pandu. Pandu marries Kunti and Madri twice. In order to experience her husband's suffering, Gandhari, a princess from Gandhara, wears a blindfold for the rest of her life when Dhritarashtra marries her. This infuriates her brother Shakuni, who makes a vow to exact revenge on the Kuru family. Pandu hears the voice of a wild animal one day as he is unwinding in the jungle. He fires an arrow in the general vicinity of the noise. The sage Kindama, who was performing a sexual act while posing as a deer, is struck by the arrow, though. He curses Pandu, telling him that if he has sex, he would perish. Following Pandu's retirement with his two wives into the jungle, his blind brother Dhritarashtra takes over as king. However, Sage Durvasa had granted the older queen of Pandu, Kunti, the blessing that she could call upon any god with the aid of a certain mantra. With the help of this blessing, Kunti approaches the gods of justice Dharma, the wind deity Vayu, and the sky lord Indra to request sons. Through these gods, she gives birth to three sons: Yudhishthira, Bhima, and Arjuna. The younger queen Madri, who gives birth to the twins Nakula and Sahadeva via the Ashwini twins, and Kunti both recite the same mantra. But when Pandu and Madri start having affairs, Pandu perishes. Madri kills herself out of regret. The five brothers are raised by Kunti and are afterwards referred to as the Pandava brothers. Through Gandhari, Dhritarashtra has one daughter, Duhsala, and one hundred sons who were all born after Yudhishthira. These are the Kaurava brothers, with Dushasana being the younger and Duryodhana being the older. Vikarna and Sukarna were additional Kaurava brothers. The Kurukshetra war is caused by their animosity and rivalry with the Pandava brothers, which began while they were young and continued into adulthood. Part 3 Lakshagraha The Pandavas and their mother Kunti return to the palace of Hastinapur following the passing of their mother Madri and father Panda. Under strong pressure from his courtiers, Dhritarashtra appoints Yudhishthira as Crown Prince. Dhritarashtra let his desire stand in the way of upholding justice because he wanted his son Duryodhana to become king. The Pandavas are the target of a conspiracy by Shakuni, Duryodhana, and Dushasana. Shakuni hires Purochana, an architect, to construct a palace consisting of flammable substances like lac and ghee. He then makes preparations for the Pandavas and the Queen Mother Kunti to reside there with the intention of setting it on fire. But the wise Vidura, the wise uncle of the Pandavas, warns them and sends a miner to construct a tunnel for them. They can make their way to safety and take cover. Bhima marries the demon Hidimbi at this period, and they have a son named Ghatotkacha. The Pandavas and Kunti are said to have perished in Hastinapur. Part 4 Draupadi With the aid of his pupils, Drona, the Kuru princes' instructor, vanquishes Drupada and seizes half of Panchala. In his quest for retribution, Drupada discovers that none of his offspring or supporters are strong enough to kill Drona. He consequently makes the decision to do a yajna (fire sacrifice) in order to acquire a strong son. The yajna is performed under the direction of the sages Yaja and Upyaja, who serve as head priests. When the sacrifice offering is finished, the priests tell Drupada's wife Prishati to eat it, but she declines and requests that they hold off until she has cleaned herself. A young man and a young woman emerge from the altar of the sacrifice as Yaja, impatient no longer, pours the offering there. A divine prophecy follows the birth of the maiden, "The first woman will be this young woman with a dark complexion, and she will be responsible for the deaths of numerous Kshatriyas. In due course, this slender-waisted one will fulfill the gods' intent, and the Kauravas will face several dangers as a result." The young person's name is Dhrishtadyumna, while the young woman is Krishnaa, but she is more often known by her patronymic "Draupadi." They adopt Drupada and Prishati as their guardians, and they grow up in Drupada's castle. Although the young man and the young woman are both called Dhrishtadyumna and Krishnaa, the latter is most commonly referred to by the patronymic "Draupadi." They acknowledge Drupada and Prishati to be their parents, and they grow up in Drupada's castle. Draupadi is given an incredibly complimentary description in the Mahabharata as she emerges from the fire, The fire-born woman was stunningly attractive. Her complexion was dark, her blue, curly hair was as big as lotus petals, and she had black, round eyes. Her bosom was deep, her eyebrows were fair, and her nails were elegantly convex and as bright as burnished copper. She truly resembled the real-life celestial born-among-men daughter. She emitted a blue lotus-like scent from her body that could be smelled from two kilometres away. She was unlike anyone else on earth in terms of beauty. She can be coveted (for marriage) by a celestial, a Danava, or a Yaksha, much like a celestial herself. The public, including brahmanas, as well as many princes started moving toward Panchala as soon as word of Draupadi's svayamvara went widely. Unexpectedly, the Pandavas and their mother Kunti started their journey toward Panchala at the same moment. A sizable group of brahmanas who were also traveling to Panchala met the Pandavas as they were approaching and invited them to join them. Drupada had plans to marry Arjuna to his daughter. He organized a Swayamvara contest for Draupadi to select her husband from after learning of the Pandavas' alleged demise at Varnavata. To pass the test, one had to lift and string a bow before shooting arrows at a golden fish while only watching its reflection in the water. Nearly all of the various kings at the Swayamvara failed to accomplish the challenge. Regarding Karna's involvement, there are some versions. In some accounts, Draupadi rejects Karna because he is a Suta, while in other versions, he fails to string the bow by the "breadth of a hair." In the end, Arjuna succeeds in the job, clothed as a Brahmin. In response to a Brahmin winning the competition, the other spectators, notably the Kauravas and Karna, attack Draupadi and Arjuna. Together, Arjuna and Bhima defend Draupadi by thwarting everyone there so they can leave. Draupadi and his brothers follow Arjuna as he returns home yelling, "Look what we have got!" to Kunti. Kunti assumed he was alluding to alms discovered in the woods or some significant, yet unidentified, prize. She instructs Arjuna to share the discovery with his brothers because in the past they had always done so. It is decided that all five of her brothers will wed her as a result of this misunderstanding and a motherly order. Thus begins Draupadi's extraordinary journey with her five husbands. The brothers decided that if Draupadi was alone with one of the others, no one should bother her; doing so would result in a 12-year exile. Some accounts claim that each Pandava was given a year, during which time only that Pandava was allowed access to Draupadi's private quarters; other accounts make no such claim. Five sons are eventually born to Draupadi, one from each of the Pandava brothers. Their name was Upapandavas. They were Yudhishthira's descendants Prativindhya, Sutasoma (from Bheema), Shrutakarma (from Arjuna), Satanika (from Nakula), and Shrutasena (from Sahadeva). On the eighteenth day of the war, Ashwatthama launched a surprise attack on the Pandava camp in an effort to exact revenge for the passing of his father Drona, killing the Upapandavas. Part 5 Indraprastha The Pandava brothers are welcomed back to Hastinapura after the wedding. The Pandavas obtain and demand just a wild forest home to Takshaka, the king of snakes, and his family as part of the kingdom divide negotiated and mediated by the elders and relatives of the Kuru family. The Pandavas can create a splendid new capital for the realm in Indraprastha by working hard. Shortly after, Arjuna elopes with Subhadra, Krishna's sister, and later marries her. Yudhishthira seeks Krishna's counsel in order to solidify his status as king. Yudhishthira follows Krishna's advice, and after careful planning and the removal of some opposition, he performs the rjasya yagna ceremony, earning him the title of supreme among kings. Maya the Danava constructs the Pandavas a brand-new palace for them. Indraprastha is the destination for their Kaurava cousins. Duryodhana circles the palace, but he doesn't venture inside because he thinks the glistening floor is water. He sees a pond and assumes it is not water, falls in after being informed of his wrong. He is ridiculed by Bhima, Arjun, the twins, the staff, and the servants. Even though the Pandavas (aside from Yudhishthira) were the ones who insulted Duryodhana in the Sanskrit epic, Draupadi is incorrectly blamed for the insult in popular renditions of the story. Duryodhana accepts Shakuni's invitation to arrange a dice game out of fury over the insult and jealousy over the wealth of the Pandavas. Part 6 The dice game Uncle to Duryodhana Shakuni now sets up a dice game in which he competes against Yudhishthira while using loaded dice. Yudhishthira loses his entire fortune and subsequently his kingdom in the dice game. After that, Yudhishthira uses gambling to force his wife, brothers, and finally himself into servitude. In front of the entire court, the ecstatic Kauravas humiliate the weak Pandavas and even attempt to disrobe Draupadi. However, Krishna suddenly makes Draupadi's clothing infinite, preventing this from happening. The circumstance horrifies Dhritarashtra, Bhishma, and the other elders, but Duryodhana is sure that Hastinapura cannot accommodate two crown princes. Dhritarashtra forces him to play another round of dice. The Pandavas must go into exile for 12 years, and then they must remain hidden for the final year. They will be sent into exile for an additional 12 years if the Kauravas find them in the 13th year of their exile. Part 6 Exile and return The thirteen-year exile of the Pandavas is filled with numerous adventures. During this time, the Pandavas receive a large number of divine weapons from the gods. They also set up alliances in case of a potential war in the future. They hide out in the king Virata's court for their final year before being found shortly after the year's end. With Krishna acting as their agent, they attempt to negotiate a return to Indraprastha at the end of their exile. However, because to Duryodhana's objection that they were found in the 13th year of their exile and that the restitution of their kingdom was not agreed upon, this discussion fails. Then, the Pandavas engaged in combat with the Kauravas to defend their claim to Indraprastha. Part 7 The battle at Kurukshetra At Kurukshetra, the two sides gather their massive armies in preparation for battle. The Pandavas had alliances with the kingdoms of Panchala, Dwaraka, Kasi, Kekaya, Magadha, Matsya, Chedi, Pandyas, Telinga, and the Yadus of Mathura, as well as some other families like the Parama Kambojas. The rulers of Pragjyotisha, Anga, Kekaya, Sindhudesa (including Sindhus, Sauviras, and Sivis), Mahishmati, Avanti in Madhyadesa, Madra, Gandhara, the Bahlika people, Kambojas, and numerous more kingdoms were among the allies of the Kauravas. Balarama expressed his displeasure at the clash before it was proclaimed war and left to go on pilgrimage; as a result, he does not participate in the actual combat. As a non-combatant, Krishna serves as Sarathy's charioteer for Arjuna and offers the Kauravas the Narayani Sena, which is made up of Abhira gopas, so they can fight alongside them. Before the battle, Arjuna has serious reservations about engaging in combat after observing that the enemy army contains his cousins and kin, including his grandpa Bhishma and his tutor Drona. He gives up and becomes despondent. In the renowned Bhagavad Gita section of the epic, Krishna reminds him of his responsibility as a Kshatriya to fight for a just cause at this point. Although both sides initially adhere to heroic ideas of battle, they gradually adopt dishonest strategies. Only the Pandavas, Satyaki, Kripa, Ashwatthama, Kritavarma, Yuyutsu, and Krishna survive the 18-day war. Hastinapur is now ruled by Yudhisthir, and Gandhari curses Krishna, prophesying the impending demise of his family. Part 8 The end of the Pandavas Gandhari, who had lost all her sons, condemns Krishna for having to watch a similar extermination of his family after "seeing" the carnage since, although being divine and able to halt the battle, he had not done so. The curse is accepted by Krishna, and 36 years later it is fulfilled. The Pandavas decide to give up everything after ruling their country in the interim. They withdraw to the Himalaya in rags and skins and ascend to heaven in their physical shape. They are accompanied by a stray dog. Draupadi and the brothers fall one by one as they travel. Yudhishthira explains the cause of each person's collapse to the others as they individually falter (Draupadi was partial to Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva were vain and proud of their looks, and Bhima and Arjuna were proud of their strength and archery skills, respectively). Only the honorable Yudhishthira, who had made every effort to stop the slaughter, and the dog are left. The dog leads the man to the underworld, where he encounters his siblings and wife, revealing himself to be the god Yama (also known as Yama Dharmaraja). Yama returns Yudhishthira to heaven after explaining the purpose of the test and states that it was necessary to subject him to the underworld because (Rajyante narakam dhruvam) any monarch must travel there at least once. Yama then gives him the assurance that his wife and brothers will follow him to heaven once they had spent the appropriate amount of time in the underworld due to their vices. Parikshit, the successor of Arjuna as king, is killed by a snake bite. Janamejaya, his enraged son, chooses to sacrifice a snake (sarpasattra) in order to get rid of the snakes. The story of his ancestors is told to him during this sacrifice. According to the Mahbhrata, Karna, the Pandavas, Draupadi, and Dhritarashtra's sons eventually acquired svarga and "attained the state of the gods," united together, and were "serene and free from anger."