Week 7 Story: Mahabharata Family Tree

The Mahabharata narrates the rivalry between the two groups of cousins, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, whose family drama ensues an all-out war. The Mahabharata all begins with the birth of Vyasa – wait, does it begin there or before him? He’s not even a Pandava or Kaurava, is he? Okay, I’m going to figure out this family tree first. 

Mahabharata family tree (Wikipedia)

We’ll start with Satyavati, who was born from a fish and a king. Making her half-fish and half-woman. So that makes her a mermaid, right? No wait, I think she was a human woman who just smelled like fish. Okay so, she was raised by a fisherman and meets Parashara, a rishi who takes away her fishy smell in exchange for embracing him. This trade left her with a beautiful scent and a son, Vyasa.

Next, there is King Shantanu, son of King Kuru. Shantanu’s first wife was the goddess Ganga. Together, they had like seven or eight kids, but she kept throwing them into the Ganges. For obvious reasons, this upset Shantanu and he told her to knock it off. So, Ganga left the last child, Bhishma, with Shantanu and never returned.

Then, Shantanu falls in love with the pretty-smelling Satyavati, but isn’t able to marry her since he already has Bhishma. Bhishma promises to never take the throne, have kids, or have a wife, so his father can marry Ganga. Oops, I mean marry Satyavati. Shantanu and Satyavati have two sons together, Chitrangada and Vichitravirya. Chitrangada dies before he can contribute anything though, so just worry about Vichitravirya.

Bhishma seizes three maidens, Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika, for Vichitravirya to marry. Amba leaves for another prince, but then gets rejected by said prince. Then I think she just lives in the forest hating Bhishma? I’m not sure, but she’s irrelevant to the family tree. Unfortunately, Vichitravirya dies before he could have kids.

To keep the family tree going, Vyasa had children with Ambika and Ambalika. Ambika’s son was born deaf, and named Dhritarashtra. Actually wait, he wasn’t deaf he was blind. Ambalika’s son was named Pandu after his pale color, which is kind of mean I think, but it doesn’t matter. Vyasa then had a son with the handmaiden in hopes to get a child with no defect – is being pale really considered a defect? Anyway, the third son between Vyasa and the handmaiden was named Dharma.

Pandu becomes king and marries Kunti and Madri. Kunti’s sons were Yudishthira, Bhima, and Arjuna. Madri’s sons were Nakula and Sahadeva. The sons were said to be the sons of god’s and not Pandu’s, but for the sake of confusion I’m calling them Pandu’s sons. These five sons are the Pandava brothers. Kunti also has a son Karna that she had abandoned and he comes back eventually, but he doesn’t like the Pandava brothers.

When Pandu died, Dhritarashtra became king and married Gandhari. Together, they had a hundred sons. Wait, a hundred? That can’t be right. No wait, it’s right. They had a hundred sons and became known as the Kauravas. The eldest and arguably worst son was Duryodhana. He was always extremely jealous of the Pandava brothers and his envy is one of the leading factors of the family rivalry.

So that’s the family tree, and after all that explaining I’m going let you learn about the rest of the story on your own. At least now we know how it all began. 

Authors Note:

This story is a summary of the episodes told in Part A of the PDE Mahabharata that explain the relationships between the Pandavas and Kauravas. Even with a character list, I felt really confused throughout the whole epic on how everyone was related. My writing style was inspired by the narrators in “Sita’s Sings the Blues” and their constant confusion about what was going on in the Ramayana. I really enjoyed this writing style because I was able incorporate questions that I asked myself during the readings.