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The older generations

Shantanu woos Satyavati, the fisherwoman. 

Painting by Raja Ravi Varma.

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 Kāśī 

arranges 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.

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

Draupadi with her five husbands - the Pandavas. 

The central figure is Yudhishthira; the two on the 

bottom are Bhima and Arjuna. Nakula and 

Sahadeva, the twins, are standing. Painting by Raja 

Ravi Varma, c. 1900.. 

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')

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.

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. 

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. 

 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 Yudhishtira. 

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.

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 Indra the lord of the 

heavens for sons. She gives birth to three sons, 

Yudhisthira, 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 dies on his funeral pyre out of remorse. 

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. 

Yudhisthira is made Crown Prince by 

Dhritarashtra, under considerable pressure from 

his kingdom. 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. Back at Hastinapur, the Pandavas and 

Kunti are presumed dead.

Marriage to Draupadi

Arjuna piercing the eye of the fish as depicted in 

Chennakesava Temple built by Hoysala Empire.

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 enter 

the competition in disguise as Brahmins. The task is 

to string a mighty steel bow and shoot a target on 

the ceiling, which is the eye of a moving artificial 

fish, while looking at its reflection in oil below. 

Most of the princes fail, many being unable to lift 

the bow.

Arjuna succeeds however. The Pandavas return 

home and inform their mother that Arjuna has won 

a competition and to look at what they have 

brought back. Without looking, Kunti asks them to 

share whatever it is Arjuna has won among 

themselves. On explaining the previous life of 

Draupadi, she 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 a new 

territory. Yudhishtira has a new capital built for 

this territory at Indraprastha. Neither the 

Pandava nor Kaurava sides are happy with the 

arrangement however.

Shortly after this, Arjuna elopes with and then 

marries Krishna's sister, Subhadra.  

Yudhishtira 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.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. 

Draupadi laughs at him and ridicules him by saying 

that this is because of his blind father 

Dhritrashtra. He then decides to avenge his 

humiliation.

The dice game

Shakuni, Duryodhana's uncle, now arranges a dice 

game, playing against Yudhishtira with loaded 

dice. Yudhishtira loses all his wealth, then his 

kingdom. 

He then even 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 her honour is saved 

by Krishna who miraculously creates lengths of 

cloth to replace the ones being 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 must remain hidden.

If discovered by the Kauravas, they will be forced 

into exile for another 12 years.

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