Reading notes: Mahabharata Part A

Bhima, son of Pandu: British Museum

o   Mahabharata was composed by Vyasa and Ganesha was the scribe. Vyasa struggled to find someone worthy of being the scribe, but Ganesha became the scribe as per Brahma’s instruction. Ganesha’s one caveat was that he would not stop writing once he started.

o   A king named Chedi’s semen fell into a river and was consumed by a fish. The fish was then caught by a fisherman with two children inside. The king took the boy and the fisherman took the girl.

o   King Shantanu and Ganga meet while King Shantanu is walking along the Ganges. He asks Ganga to marry him and she agrees is he doesn’t tell her what to do or speak down to her. Ganga begins to throw her children into the river and on the last child Shantanu speaks up and Ganga gives the king the last child and leaves forever

o   King Shantanu then meets Satyavati the daughter of the fisherman. Satyavati is the mother of Vyasa but must stay a virgin forever. King Shantanu asks to marry her, but the fisherman refuses.

o   Devavrata, son of King Shantanu and Ganga, then goes to the fisherman and renounces his place on the throne for Stayavati to be able to marry Shantanu.

o   The next two kings on the throne were not good leaders being naïve and waging wars they could not win.

o   Devavrata, now Brishma, takes the women from battle to be the king’s wives, but one does not become a wife and instead leaving and going her own way.

o   The reason for the wives was to bear sons, but the King dies before any sons were born, so Vyasa comes up with a solution for Brishma to bear three sons. The third son Pandu was named king.

o   Kunti was one of Pandu’s wives and gave birth to a baby in secret. She floated the baby down the river until two people found son.

o   Pandu was given two cruses because he killed two brahmin’s by accident deer hunting. One was that would die in his wife’s arms and the other was that he was die next time he was aroused.

o   Pandu died quickly, but his wives bored 5 sons before he died.

o   The Pandavas and Kauravas were cousins, but there was a fierce rivalry between them because they were part of two different kingdoms.

o   Since Kunti, the wife of Pandu, was widowed she raised the five sons of Pandu in the mountains until bringing them to the royal city called Hastinapura. In the city, King Dhritasrashtra, Pandu’s brother, gives the Pandava’s and Kauravas a home together and things begin to escalate.

o   Duryodhana, a brother of the Kauravas, comes up with a plot to kill Bhima and posions him. The poison almost kills Bhima, but Bhima is saved by snakes who counteract the poison and he stays in the snake kingdom until regaining strength to return home.

o   Drona is a guru who teaches the Pandavas and Kauravas to battle fiercely. The Pandava’s excel at the training and Duryodhana begins to get jealous.

o   At the end of the training, a tournament takes place where the Pandavas and Kauravas battle each other. Near the end of the battle, a man named Arjun comes into the tournament and is almost declared victorious when another warrior comes into battle. Karna is the new warrior and is the son that was abandoned in the river by Kunti. Neither Arjun nor Kunti knows they are bothers and as they are about to battle, the gods show who the two unknown warriors really are. The two warriors are then brought into the kingdom together.

o   Training has been completed so Dona makes the Pandavas and Kauravas settle his vendettas against his enemy King Drupada. The Pandavas defeat the king easily bringing the rivalry between the Pandavas and Kauravas to a high point. 

Bibliography: 

Author: Various Contributors

Title: Mahabharata

Source: PDE Mahbharata