A Comprehensive Guide By Jack Watts and Conner Reynolds Texts: Mahabharata ● Written by Vyasa ● Its plot centers on the power struggle between the Kaurava and Pandava princes. They fight the Kurukshetra War for the throne of Hastinapura, the kingdom ruled by the Kuru clan. ● As per legend, Vyasa dictates it to Ganesha, who writes it down ● Divided into 18 parvas and 100 sub­parvas ● The Mahabharata is told in the form of a frame tale. Janamejaya, an ancestor of the Pandavas, is told the tale of his ancestors while he is performing a snake sacrifice ● The Genealogy of the Kuru clan ○ King Shantanu is an ancestor of Kuru and is the first king mentioned ○ He marries the goddess Ganga and has the son Bhishma ○ He then wishes to marry Satyavati, the daughter of a fisherman ○ However, Satyavati’s father will only let her marry Shantanu on one condition: Shantanu must promise that any sons of Satyavati will rule Hastinapura ○ To help his father be able to marry Satyavati, Bhishma renounces his claim to the throne and takes a vow of celibacy ○ Satyavati had married Parashara and had a son with him, Vyasa ○ Now she marries Shantanu and has another two sons, Chitrangada and Vichitravirya ○ Shantanu dies, and Chitrangada becomes king ○ Chitrangada lives a short and uneventful life, and then dies, making Vichitravirya king ○ The King of Kasi puts his three daughters up for marriage (A swayamvara), but he does not invite Vichitravirya as a possible suitor ○ Bhishma, to arrange a marriage for Vichitravirya, abducts the three daughters of Kasi: Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika ○ Ambika and Ambalika agree to marry Vichitravirya ○ Amba, however, wishes to marry the King of Shalva, and Bhishma lets her go ○ Shalva does not marry her though ○ With no other option, Amba comes back to marry Bhishma, who also declines due to his vow of celibacy ○ Amba is enraged, and after she dies she is reborn as Shikhandi to King Drupada ○ With the help of Shikhandi, Arjuna will cause the fall of Bhishma ○ Vichitravirya dies without any heirs, so Satyavati asks her first son Vyasa to father children with Ambika and Ambalika, the widows of Vichitravirya ○ Ambika shuts her eyes when she sees Vyasa, so her son Dhritarashtra is born blind ○ Ambalika turns pale when she sees Vyasa, so her son Pandu is born pale and unhealthy ○ Satyavati asks Vyasa to try one final time ○ However, Ambika and Ambalika send their maid, who gives birth to Vidura, who will eventually serve as Prime Minister to Dhritarashtra and Pandu ○ Dhritarashtra is about to be crowned king by Bhishma, but Vidura intervenes, reminding everyone that a blind man cannot become king ○ Because of this, Pandu is crowned king ○ Pandu marries twice; first to Kunti and then to Madri ○ Dhritarashtra marries Gandhari, who blindfolds herself to feel the pain her husband feels ○ Shakuni, the brother of Gandhari, is enraged that Gandhari must blindfold herself, so he vows revenge on the Kuru clan ○ Pandu is relaxing in the forest one day, and he hears what he thinks is a wild animal, so he shoots an arrow in its direction ○ As it turns out, Pandu has just shot the sage Kindama, who curses Pandu to die if he should engage in a sexual act ○ Pandu gives up his reign to live in the forest, and Dhritarashtra takes over his rule, despite Dhritarashtra’s blindness ○ Pandu cannot have sex because of the curse of Kindama, but his first wife Kunti has been given a boon by the sage Durvasa that she can invoke any god with a special mantra ○ She invokes Dharma, Vayu, and Indra to give her sons ○ She gives birth by the gods to three sons: Yudhisthira, Bhima, and Arjuna ○ Kunti shares her mantra with Madri ○ Madri gives birth to twins, Nakula and Sahadeva, after invoking the Ashvin twins ○ The sons of Kunti and Madri make up the Pandavas; five brothers ○ Pandu and Madri have sex, and Pandu dies from his curse ○ Madri dies with Pandu on his funeral pyre, leaving Kunti to raise the Pandava brothers ○ Dhritarashtra has one hundred sons by Gandhari, the first of which is Duryodhana, and the second of which is Dushasana ○ These one hundred brothers are the Kauravas ○ From this genealogy we can learn two things ○ The first is that the eldest Pandava, Yudhisthira, is the oldest of any of the Pandavas or Kauravas, and therefore has a legitimate claim to the throne of the Kuru clan ○ The second is that the Kauravas were born of Dhritarashtra, the eldest of the sons of Vyasa. Therefore, Duryodhana, the eldest of the Kauravas, also has a legitimate claim to the throne of the Kuru clan ○ Its is this question of true legitimacy that leads to the Kurukshetra War ● Lakshagraha (The House of Lac) ○ After Madri and Pandu die, the Pandavas and their mother Kunti return to Hastinapur ○ Dhritarashtra names Yudhisthira, not his own son Duryodhana, prince and heir to the throne ○ This exacerbates the tension between the two groups of brothers to the point that the Kauravas plot to kill the Pandavas ○ Shakuni, the uncle of Duryodhana, requests the architect Purochana make a house out of flammable materials such as lac ○ After the house is built, Shakuni arranges for the Pandavas and Kunti to stay there, with the intention of burning down the house and killing the Pandavas ○ However, the wise Vidura warns the Pandavas and sends them a miner so that they might tunnel out to safety ○ The Pandavas escape and go into hiding. However, at Hastinapura they are presumed dead ● Marriage to Draupadi ○ While in hiding the Pandavas learn of a Swayamvara for the Pancala princess Draupadi ○ The Pandavas enter the competition disguised ○ The game is this: the suitor must string a giant steel bow and shoot the eye of an artificial moving fish while looking at its reflection in a pool of oil below ○ Many fail, but Arjuna succeeds, earning him the hand of Draupadi in marriage ○ When they return, the Pandavas tell their mother to look at what Arjuna has won ○ Without looking she tells Arjuna to share his prize with the rest of the brothers ○ From then on, all five brothers were married to Draupadi ● Indraprastha ○ After the wedding to Draupadi the Pandava brothers are invited back to Hastinapura ○ The kingdom is split between the Pandavas and the Kauravas ○ Yudhisthira builds his new capital at Indraprastha ○ The problem is, neither the Pandavas nor the Kauravas are happy with the deal ○ Arjuna elopes with and marries Krishna’s sister, Subhadra ○ Yudhisthira wants to establish himself as the king, so he seeks the advice of Krishna, who advises Yudhisthira to perform a ceremony ○ Yudhisthira does this, and he is recognized as pre­eminent among kings ○ The Pandavas have a palace built for them by Maya and Danava, and they invite their Kaurava brothers to it ○ Duryodhana comes, and while walking around the palace, mistakes a glossy floor for water, and will not step on it ○ He is told of his mistake, but while continuing to walk around, he mistakes a pond for a glossy floor and falls in the water ○ Draupadi makes fun of him saying he has inherited his father’s blindness ○ Duryodhana vows to avenge this humiliation ● The Dice Game ○ Shakuni arranges for Duryodhana to play Yudhisthira in a game of dice in which the dice are loaded in favor of Duryodhana ○ Yudhisthira loses his wealth and his kingdom in the game, and he even sells his brothers, his wife, and himself into servitude ○ The Kauravas insult the Pandavas and even try to disrobe Draupadi in the presence of the entire court ○ Draupadi is saved, however, by Krishna, who creates a piece of cloth to replace any that is taken off of her ○ Dhritarashtra and Bhishma are angry at the situation, but Duryodhana insists that the kingdom be rejoined under only one crown ○ The Pandavas are sent into exile for 13 years. During the 13th year, the brothers are to remain hidden, and if they are discovered, they must go into exile for another twelve years ● Exile and Return ○ The Pandavas spend thirteen years in exile, spending much of their time creating alliances should a conflict erupt ○ In their thirteenth year the brothers spend their time disguised at the court of Virata ○ The Pandavas are discovered, but only after the end of the thirteenth year ○ The brothers try to negotiate a return to their capital of Indraprastha, but Duryodhana refuses, claiming that the brothers were discovered before the end of the thirteenth year ○ With these events, a war between the Pandavas and Kauravas becomes inevitable ● The Battle at Kurukshetra ○ Both sides summon their allies and line up at Kurukshetra, preparing for war ○ Krishna takes part, but not in a militant role. Instead, he serves as the charioteer for Arjuna ○ Arjuna sees his great grandfather Bhishma and his teacher Drona preparing to fight him, and gets scared, failing to lift his Gandeeva bow. It is at this time that the Bhagavad­Gita occurs, when Krishna gives a pep talk to Arjuna. ○ The battle begins with Bhishma as commander for the Kauravas ○ Bhishma falls on a bed of arrows and Drona takes his place as commander ○ Many of the great warriors die, including Drona, who is replaced by Karna ○ The story of Balarma’s pilgrimage is told at this point in the epic. Refusing to partake in the carnage, he travels to the Saraswati river ○ Shalya takes over as commander of the Kauravas in the final part of the battle ○ Duryodhana gets into a mace fight with Bhima. Bhima smashes Duryodhana’s thighs in, killing him and ending the Kaurava line and the war ○ Ashvattama, Kripa, and Kritavarma kill the remaining Pandava army in their sleep ○ The women and the Pandavas lament the dead ○ At the end of the 18 day battle only the Pandavas, Krishna, and five other people have survived ● The End of the Pandavas ○ Gandhari, who had lost all of her sons, curses Krishna.