MAHABHARATA

The core story of the work is that of a dynastic struggle for the throne of Hastinapura, the kingdom
ruled by the Kuruclan. The two collateral branches of the family that participate in the struggle are
the Kaurava and the Pandava. Although the Kaurava is the senior branch of the
family, Duryodhana, the eldest Kaurava, is younger than Yudhishthira, the eldest Pandava. Both
Duryodhana and Yudhishthira claim to be first in line to inherit the throne.
The struggle culminates in the great battle of Kurukshetra, in which the Pandavas are ultimately
victorious. The battle produces complex conflicts of kinship and friendship, instances of family
loyalty and duty taking precedence over what is right, as well as the converse.
The Mahābhārata itself ends with the death of Krishna, and the subsequent end of his dynasty and
ascent of the Pandava brothers to heaven. It also marks the beginning of the Hindu age of Kali
Yuga, the fourth and final age of humankind, in which great values and noble ideas have crumbled,
and people are heading towards the complete dissolution of right action, morality and virtue.

The older generations

King Janamejaya's ancestor Shantanu, the king of Hastinapura, has a short-lived marriage with the
goddess Ganga and has a son, Devavrata (later to be called Bhishma, a great warrior), who
becomes the heir apparent. Many years later, when King Shantanu goes hunting, he
sees Satyavati, the daughter of the chief of fisherman, and asks her father for her hand. Her father
refuses to consent to the marriage unless Shantanu promises to make any future son of Satyavati
the king upon his death. To resolve his father's dilemma, Devavrata agrees to relinquish his right
to the throne. As the fisherman is not sure about the prince's children honouring the promise,
Devavrata also takes a vow of lifelong celibacy to guarantee his father's promise.
Shantanu has two sons by Satyavati, Chitrāngada and Vichitravirya. Upon Shantanu's death,
Chitrangada becomes king. He lives a very short uneventful life and dies. Vichitravirya, the younger
son, rules Hastinapura. Meanwhile, the King of Kāśīarranges a swayamvara for his three
daughters, neglecting to invite the royal family of Hastinapur. In order to arrange the marriage of
young Vichitravirya, Bhishma attends the swayamvara of the three princesses Amba, Ambika and
Ambalika, uninvited, and proceeds to abduct them. Ambika and Ambalika consent to be married
to Vichitravirya.
The oldest princess Amba, however, informs Bhishma that she wishes to marry king of Shalva
whom Bhishma defeated at their swayamvara. Bhishma lets her leave to marry king of Shalva, but
Shalva refuses to marry her, still smarting at his humiliation at the hands of Bhishma. Amba then
returns to marry Bhishma but he refuses due to his vow of celibacy. Amba becomes enraged and
becomes Bhishma's bitter enemy, holding him responsible for her plight. Later she is reborn to
King Drupada as Shikhandi (or Shikhandini) and causes Bhishma's fall, with the help of Arjuna, in
the battle of Kurukshetra.

The Pandava and Kaurava princes

When Vichitravirya dies young without any heirs, Satyavati asks her first son Vyasa to father
children with the widows. The eldest, Ambika, shuts her eyes when she sees him, and so her
son Dhritarashtra is born blind. Ambalika turns pale and bloodless upon seeing him, and thus her
son Pandu is born pale and unhealthy (the term Pandu may also mean 'jaundiced'[47]). Due to the
physical challenges of the first two children, Satyavati asks Vyasa to try once again. However,
Ambika and Ambalika send their maid instead, to Vyasa's room. Vyasa fathers a third son, Vidura,
by the maid. He is born healthy and grows up to be one of the wisest characters in
the Mahabharata. He serves as Prime Minister (Mahamantri or Mahatma) to King Pandu and King
Dhritarashtra.

When the princes grow up, Dhritarashtra is about to be crowned king by Bhishma when Vidura
intervenes and uses his knowledge of politics to assert that a blind person cannot be king. This is
because a blind man cannot control and protect his subjects. The throne is then given to Pandu
because of Dhritarashtra's blindness. Pandu marries twice, to Kunti and Madri. Dhritarashtra
marries Gandhari, a princess from Gandhara, who blindfolds herself so that she may feel the pain
that her husband feels. Her brother Shakuni is enraged by this and vows to take revenge on the
Kuru family. One day, when Pandu is relaxing in the forest, he hears the sound of a wild animal.
He shoots an arrow in the direction of the sound. However the arrow hits the sage Kindama, who
curses him that if he engages in a sexual act, he will die. Pandu then retires to the forest along with
his two wives, and his brother Dhritarashtra rules thereafter, despite his blindness.
Pandu's older queen Kunti, however, had been given a boon by Sage Durvasa that she could invoke
any god using a special mantra. Kunti uses this boon to ask Dharma the god of justice, Vayu the
god of the wind, and Indrathe lord of the heavens for sons. She gives birth to three
sons, Yudhishthira, Bhima, and Arjuna, through these gods. Kunti shares her mantra with the
younger queen Madri, who bears the twins Nakula and Sahadeva through the Ashwini twins.
However, Pandu and Madri indulge in sex, and Pandu dies. Madri Commits Sati out of remorse.
Kunti raises the five brothers, who are from then on usually referred to as the Pandava brothers.
Dhritarashtra has a hundred sons through Gandhari, all born after the birth of Yudhishthira. These
are the Kaurava brothers, the eldest being Duryodhana, and the second Dushasana. Other
Kaurava brothers were Vikarna and Sukarna. The rivalry and enmity between them and the
Pandava brothers, from their youth and into manhood, leads to the Kurukshetra war.

Lakshagraha (the house of lac)

After the deaths of their mother (Madri) and father (Pandu), the Pandavas and their mother Kunti
return to the palace of Hastinapur. Yudhishthira is made Crown Prince by Dhritarashtra, under
considerable pressure from his courtiers. Dhritarashtra wanted his own son Duryodhana to
become king and lets his ambition get in the way of preserving justice.
Shakuni, Duryodhana and Dusasana plot to get rid of the Pandavas. Shakuni calls the architect
Purochana to build a palace out of flammable materials like lac and ghee. He then arranges for the
Pandavas and the Queen Mother Kunti to stay there, with the intention of setting it alight.
However, the Pandavas are warned by their wise uncle, Vidura, who sends them a miner to dig a
tunnel. They are able to escape to safety and go into hiding. During this time Bhima marries a
rakshashi Hidimba and has a son Ghatotkachh. Back in Hastinapur, the Pandavas and Kunti are
presumed dead.
Marriage to Draupadi
Whilst they were in hiding the Pandavas learn of a swayamvara which is taking place for the hand
of the Pāñcāla princess Draupadī. The Pandavas disguised as Brahmins come to witness the event.
Meanwhile Krishna who has already befriended Draupadi, tells her to look out for Arjuna (though
now believed to be dead). The task was to string a mighty steel bow and shoot a target on the
ceiling, which was the eye of a moving artificial fish, while looking at its reflection in oil below, a
feat only Karna, Arjuna and Krishna himself could perform. After all the princes fail, many being
unable to lift the bow Karna proceeds to the attempt but is interrupted by Draupadi refusing to
marry a sut putra. After this the swayamvara is opened to the brahmins leading Arjuna to win the
contest and marry Draupadi. The Pandavas return home and inform their meditating mother that
Arjuna has won a competition and to look at what they have brought back. Without looking, Kunti
asks them to share whatever Arjuna has won amongst themselves. Thus, Draupadi ends up being
the wife of all five brothers.

Indraprastha
After the wedding, the Pandava brothers are invited back to Hastinapura. The Kuru family elders
and relatives negotiate and broker a split of the kingdom, with the Pandavas obtaining and
demanding only a wild forest inhabited by Takshaka, the king of snakes and his family. Through
hard work the Pandavas are able to build a new glorious capital for the territory at Indraprastha.
Shortly after this, Arjuna elopes with and then marries Krishna's sister, Subhadra. Yudhisthra
wishes to establish his position as king; he seeks Krishna's advice. Krishna advises him, and after
due preparation and the elimination of some opposition, Yudhishthira carries out the rājasūya
yagna ceremony; he is thus recognised as pre-eminent among kings.
The Pandavas have a new palace built for them, by Maya the Danava.[49] They invite their Kaurava
cousins to Indraprastha. Duryodhana walks round the palace, and mistakes a glossy floor for water,
and will not step in. After being told of his error, he then sees a pond, and assumes it is not water
and falls in. Bhima, Arjun, the twins and the servants laugh at him. In popular adaptations, this
insult is wrongly attributed to Draupadi, even though in the Sanskrit epic, it was the Pandavas
(except Yudhisthira) who had insulted Duryodhana. Enraged by the insult, and jealous at seeing
the wealth of the Pandavas, Duryodhana decides to host a dice-game at Shakuni's suggestion.

The dice game

Shakuni, Duryodhana's uncle, now arranges a dice game, playing against Yudhishthira with loaded
dice. In the dice game, Yudhishthira loses all his wealth, then his kingdom. Yudhishthira then
gambles his brothers, himself, and finally his wife into servitude. The jubilant Kauravas insult the
Pandavas in their helpless state and even try to disrobe Draupadi in front of the entire court, but
Draupadi's disrobe is prevented by Krishna, who miraculously make her dress endless, therefore
it couldn't be removed.
Dhritarashtra, Bhishma, and the other elders are aghast at the situation, but Duryodhana is
adamant that there is no place for two crown princes in Hastinapura. Against his wishes
Dhritarashtra orders for another dice game. The Pandavas are required to go into exile for 12
years, and in the 13th year, they must remain hidden. If they are discovered by the Kauravas in
the 13th year of their exile, then they will be forced into exile for another 12 years.

Exile and return

The Pandavas spend thirteen years in exile; many adventures occur during this time. They also
prepare alliances for a possible future conflict. They spend their final year in disguise in the court
of Virata, and they are discovered just after the end of the year.
At the end of their exile, they try to negotiate a return to Indraprastha with Krishna as their
emissary. However, this negotiation fails, because Duryodhana objected that they were
discovered in the 13th year of their exile and the return of their kingdom was not agreed. Then
the Pandavas fought the Kauravas, claiming their rights over Indraprastha.

The battle at Kurukshetra

The two sides summon vast armies to their help and line up at Kurukshetra for a war. The
kingdoms of Panchala, Dwaraka, Kasi, Kekaya, Magadha, Matsya, Chedi, Pandyas, Telinga, and
the Yadus of Mathura and some other clans like the Parama Kambojas were allied with
the Pandavas. The allies of the Kauravasincluded the kings of Pragjyotisha, Anga, Kekaya,
Sindhudesa (including Sindhus, Sauviras and Sivis), Mahishmati, Avanti in
Madhyadesa, Madra, Gandhara, Bahlika people, Kambojas and many others. Before war being
declared, Balarama had expressed his unhappiness at the developing conflict and leaves to go
on pilgrimage; thus he does not take part in the battle itself. Krishna takes part in a non-combatant
role, as charioteer for Arjuna.
Before the battle, Arjuna noticing that the opposing army includes his own kith and kin, including
his great grandfather Bhishma and his teacher Drona, has grave doubts about the fight and falls
into [Link] this time,Krishna reminds him of duty as a Kshatriya to fight for his just cause in the
famous Bhagavad Gitasection of the epic.
Though initially sticking to chivalrous notions of warfare, both sides soon adopt dishonourable
tactics. At the end of the 18-day battle, only the
Pandavas, Satyaki, Kripa, Ashwatthama, Kritavarma, Yuyutsu and Krishna survive.

The end of the Pandavas

After "seeing" the carnage, Gandhari, who had lost all her sons, curses Krishna to be a witness to
a similar annihilation of his family, for though divine and capable of stopping the war, he had not
done so. Krishna accepts the curse, which bears fruit 36 years later.
The Pandavas, who had ruled their kingdom meanwhile, decide to renounce everything. Clad in
skins and rags they retire to the Himalaya and climb towards heaven in their bodily form. A stray
dog travels with them. One by one the brothers and Draupadi fall on their way. As each one
stumbles, Yudhishthira gives the rest the reason for their fall (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 virtuous Yudhishthira, who had tried
everything to prevent the carnage, and the dog remain. The dog reveals himself to be the god
Yama (also known as Yama Dharmaraja), and then takes him to the underworld where he sees his
siblings and wife. After explaining the nature of the test, Yama takes Yudhishthira back to heaven
and explains that it was necessary to expose him to the underworld because (Rajyante narakam
dhruvam) any ruler has to visit the underworld at least once. Yama then assures him that his
siblings and wife would join him in heaven after they had been exposed to the underworld for
measures of time according to their vices.
Arjuna's grandson Parikshit rules after them and dies bitten by a snake. His furious son,
Janamejaya, decides to perform a snake sacrifice (sarpasattra) in order to destroy the snakes. It is
at this sacrifice that the tale of his ancestors is narrated to him.

The reunion
The Mahābhārata mentions that Karna, the Pandavas, Draupadi and Dhritarashtra's sons
eventually ascended to svarga and "attained the state of the gods" and banded together —
"serene and free from anger."[50]