Characters & Terms

Abhimanyu
The son of Arjuna by Subhadra. He is killed at a young age in the great
battle, but his wife, Uttara, bears him a child, Pariksit, who carries on
the Kuru lineage.

Arjuna
The name means "White." Arjuna is the son of Indra. He is also known
as the "left-handed archer," and "Partha."

Ashwatthama
The son of Drona. He is the world's greatest spear-man. He is highly
skilled in warfare, trained by his father in the use of mantras that can
unleash weapons of mass destruction. He misuses this magical power
in his haste to avenge the deceitful killing of his father.

Bhima
Son of Vayu, the Wind God. He is renowned as the strongest man in
the world. He is the most emotional of the Pandavas.

Bhishma
The name means "awe-inspiring." The son of Santanu and the goddess
Ganga, he was born as Devavrata, but was renamed Bhishma after his
vow of celibacy.

Brahmin
The priestly class. Beginning in Vedic times (900 B.C.), the brahmins
were the only people empowered to conduct sacrifices and Hindu
rituals. This tight brahmanical stranglehold on Hinduism, has
frequently been countered by populist religious movements, but is still
part of "orthodox" Hinduism, if there is such a thing as orthodoxy in a
religion that has so many diverse sects and practices. Traditionally,
they are regarded as the highest caste. The traditional caste hierarchy,
of four castes, still persists in the villages in India.

Dhristadyumna
The brother of Draupadi and the eventual killer of Drona. He was born
from a sacrifical fire his father had lit, when praying for the death of
Drona.

Dhritarashtra
Dhrita(grasp) + rashtra(nation) = "he who firmly grasps the nation."
The name is an ironic reference to Dhritarashtra's role as a sort of
caretaker or lame-duck ruler (the name might also be "he who chokes
the nation"). Born blind as Vyasa predicted, Dhritarashtra lives through
the deaths of his sons and the dreadful carnage of the war. His tragedy
is he had the power and authority to prevent the disasters that befell
his nation, but he lacked the discipline or will to act.

Drona
The tutor of the Kuru princes. A brahmin who teaches use of weapons.

Draupadi
The wife of the Pandavas. The unusual thing about her is that she has
a polyandrous marriage; polyandry is absent in any other work of
ancient Indian literature. Perhaps, this was a custom of the indigenous
Dravidians when the Aryans invaded around 2000 B.C. The battle of
Kurukshetra in the Mahabharata is a result of her desire for vengeance
on the Kauravas.

Drupada
The father of Draupadi. He is childless for many years and prays for a
son. He is told by Shiva he will have a son that year. When a daughter,
Shikandini is born to his wife, he decides to take Shiva's word for it,
and treats her as a son. She later becomes a man, Shikhandi. Drupada
at some point becomes a bitter enemy of Drona. He prays for Drona's
death, and sends burnt offerings to Shiva. He is asked to light a fire:
from this fire, his daughter Draupadi and son Dhrishtadyumna
emerge, fully grown adults.

Duryodhana
The name means "Difficult to conquer." He is the eldest Kaurava, the
chief antagonist of the Pandavas.

Dushasana
One of Duryodhana's brothers. He is malicious and high-handed
throughout. Unlike his brother Duryodhana, he lacks any redeeming
features.

Gandhari
The daughter of the King of Gandhara. She was betrothed to
Dhritarashtra. Upon finding out that her husband-to-be was blind, she
swore never to enjoy what he could not and blindfolded herself. For the
rest of her life, she wore the blindfold. Supposedly, she was so faithful
and devoted to her husband, that she never so much as mentioned
any other man's name (except her sons of course).
Hastinapura
The semi-mythical capital city of the Kurus throughout their reign. The
city was supposedly near what is now the modern city of Delhi in
Northern India.

Indra
One of the gods. The God of Rain and Thunder--the Vedic equivalent of
Zeus and Thor--he is the father of Arjuna. He is known as the "Soma-
drinker," soma being the intoxicating drink favored by gods and
ecstatic mystics. Indra plays a pivotal role before the battle, when he
strikes a deal with Karna.

Indraprastha
The capital of the Pandavas, the name means "city of Indra". It was
located in the swampland of the Khandava tract, the least fertile region
of the Kuru kingdom. The Pandavas cultivated and cleared the land
and built their magnificent capital.

Karna
The name means "One who Shines (like Gold?)." The son of Surya, the
Sun God, and Kunti, Karna was born encased in armor (which he later
relinquishes)and with gold earrings. His birth was embarrassing to
Kunti, who was merely fifteen at the time, so she quietly slipped him
downstream in a boat. The boat was found by Adhiratha, a charioteer,
and his childless wife, who brought him up. Karna's status as the son of
a charioteer (charioteers were typically of mixed-class parentage, so
they were scorned by the rigid caste-based society of Northern India)
leads the Pandavas, particularly Bhima, to spurn his challenge to
Arjuna at the martial skills exhibition, though he is an extremely skilled
warrior. He allies himself to Duryodhana and hopes to kill Arjuna in
combat, perhaps in a battle. He does take on Arjuna on the battlefield,
but the result is not to his liking.

The Kauravas
The hundred sons of Dhritarashtra and Gandhari. The Kauravas are
bitter rivals of the Pandavas. Duryodhana, the eldest, is jealous of his
cousins, because they are looked upon as heroes by the people in the
kingdom. Incited by the second brother, Dushasana, Duryodhana
constantly tries to kill, harrass, and deceive, the Pandavas. Vikarna,
the third brother plays a minor role, while the other brothers are quite
unimportant. In addition to the hundred sons, Gandhari has a
daughter, Duhsala. Also, Dhritarashtra had an illegitimate son,
Yuyutsu, by a servant-woman. Yuyutsu twice publicly opposes
Duryodhana: after the dice game, and just before the great battle.

Kurukshetra
Kuru + kshetra = the "field of Kuru." The semi-mythical battlefield.

The Kurus
The direct descendants of the legendary Kuru. Both the Pandavas and
Kauravas belong to the Kuru line.

The Pandavas
The five sons of Pandu and Kunti.

Pandu
The pale king, younger brother of the blind Dhritarashtra. His paleness
is most likely some sort of skin disease (leukodermia? leprosy?).

Sanjaya
The son of a mixed-caste bard, Sanjaya is a figure who pops up
throughout the Mahabharata. He is a member of the Kuru court; he is
also a prophet of sorts. He is gifted with the power to see through
illusions. He also can observe the battle of Kurukshetra without being
injured, remember everything, and then report on the events to the
blind king, Dhritarashtra.
 A brief overview of the Mahabharata

Yudhisthira says: Forgiveness is the gateway to heaven

History of the Mahabharata

The Epic Mahabharata belongs to the group of scriptures called Smriti -

the remembered word of God (see literature). Shruti (Vedas and
Upanishads) is the group of scriptures that represent the cosmic sound
of God that people once heard.

The Mahabharata had developed gradually as story and was

supplemented later. With regard to the date of Krishna's death it must
have happened before the year 3102 BC. On the Indonesian island Java
there is a version of the Mahabharata that developed territorially
independently from the Indian subcontinent - Kakawin Bharatayuddha
is an ancient poetical rendering of the Mahabharata.

Krishna and Arjuna are not only cousins

Vasudeva (Krishna's father) and Kunti (mother of the Pandavas) were

brother and sister. Arjuna later married Krishna's sister Subharda, so
he was also Krishna's brother-in-law.

The story

The authorship of the epic is traditionally ascribed to Vyasa, who is

also one of the most important characters of the whole book. The first
section of the Mahabharata introduces a few things and characters
such as Ganesha who, at the Vyasa's request, writes down the epic
Uninterruptedly in one time while Vyasa keeps dictating it.

Although there are several other things written in the beginning of the
book, the main plot starts evolving with the story of King Shantanu
(King of Hastinapura). Shantanu was enthralled by Ganga's beauty and
she gave him children. But Ganga, in order to protect a wish to save
her children from the curse once Vashishta had imposed upon them,
decided to kill them. Upon agreeing with Shantanu to become his
partner she lays down a condition that he would never ask her
anything.

When after birth of their eighth child Ganga goes to the river to throw
her little innocent boy into it, Shantanu is so depressed that he bursts
out in anger and asks Ganga why she keeps killing all their children.
However, upon breaking his promise not to ask any questions Ganga
decides to leave, but the King receives a promise that his last son will
come back one day.

Ganga keeps her promise and after some time she comes back and
returns her eighth son – Devavrata. When Devavrata grows into a
handsome prince, Shantanu meets Satyavati and falls in love with her.
But their marriage is impossible, as Satyavati's father asks the King
that it must be his daughter's children, not anyone else in the world
that would once inherit the throne.

King Shantanu is unable to agree. Had he agreed, Devavrata would

have lost his legitimate right to become the successor of the throne.
But Devavrata decides to help the Fates' steerage by an Oath that will
constrain him to eternal celibacy. As soon as he takes the Oath before
the Satyavati's father, he becomes a new man with a new name -
Bhishma (or Bheeshma).

Shantanu and Satyavati have two children – Chitrangada and

Vichitravirya.

But they do not live a long life and Shantanu falls ill and dies too.
Satyavati is confronted with kingless Hastinapura - there is no
successor of the throne. She therefore asks Vyasa - a saint and her
firstborn son, to help her.

Vichitravirya was married to Ambika and Ambalika.

Satyavati asked Vyasa to procreate a successor for the throne. Vyasa,

although reluctant, after some time agrees and goes to Ambika first
(first Vichitravirya's wife), but she gets so scared by seeing his dirty
ascetic body that she, while they make love, keeps her eyes closed in
anguish. Later she gives birth to Dhritarashtra, who is unfortunately
blind. Satyavati therefore asks Vyasa to help her again. Now it is the
Ambalika's turn, the second Vichitravirya's wife, but she, after seeing
Vyasa, gets so scared that she looses all color and becomes pale. She
gives birth to Pandu who is also pale.

Pandu becomes King, but one day he makes a big mistake and shoots
a sage Kindama while he makes love with his spouse in the woods,
being transformed to animals. As a consequence of this, the mating
deer couple was seriously hurt and they transformed themselves back
to human form. The male part, Kindama, after being shot by the
Pandu's deadly arrow, gets so angry that his inescapable curse
mutilates all Pandu's future life - the verdict is: if Pandu ever associates
sexually with a woman, he falls into the hand of death right away. After
the curse Pandu renounce the material world and Dhritarashtra, his
stepbrother, becomes King of Hastinapura.

Pandu has two wives - Madri and Kunti. One day he cannot defend
himself against Madri's sexual appeal, which makes him so desirous
that the Kindama's curse straightens out its awaiting hand of death.

The Pandavas

Kunti wants to fulfill her maternal expectations, but she has no man.
She recollects the moment when her first son Karna was conceived
from an arcane mantra one sage had given her once. Surya, the Sun
God, appeared to her then. Thus, Kunti remembers her secret mantra
and gives birth to five sons, which are referred to as the Pandavas.

Yudhisthira's father was Yama;

Bhima's father was Vayu,

Arjuna's father was Indra.

Then it was Madri who gave birth to two other sons - the twins, whose
fathers were Ashwins (divine twins). Madri's sons are

Nakula and Sahadeva. These all are the five Panadavas.

The Kauravas

Pandu and Dhritarashtra are stepbrothers and their descendants - the

Pandavas and Kauravas, later fight for the throne of Hastinapura.
Dhritarashtra had a son - Duryodhana, who was very evil. Although the
Mahabharata writes that Dhritarashtra had one hundred sons, when
the story unfolds in reference to the Kauravas, the epic pays most
attention predominantly to Duryodhana, Karna, Gandhari
(Dhritarashtra's wife), Shakuni (Gandhari's brother) and few other
persons on the Kaurava's part.

The Kauravas also have support from important advisors and teachers
such as Drona (unique teacher of martial arts), Kripa (chief priest of
the kingdom), Ashwattama (Drona's son), Bhishma, Vidura (the third
son whom Vyasa had conceived with a maiden - he later became the
chief minister in the Dhritarashtra's kingdom).

Conflicts between the Pandavas and Kauravas

Rules to becoming a successor of the throne had historically followed
only the hereditary principle. When Satyavati had decided that
Hastinapura's crown would glow on Vyasa's offshoots, her wish had
been only focused on the successor of the throne, who became
Dhritarashtra in harmony with all laws. Yudhisthira was older than
Duryodhana and after Dhritarashtra's death the legitimate successor of
the throne would be Yudhisthira. For Duryodhana, the King
Dhritarashtra's first-blood son, this was a big pain and he therefore
strived every effort to contrive all unthinkable intrigues and plots with
aim to kill the Pandavas.

Exile and War

By inviting the Pandavas to a dice game, Duryodhana manipulates

their kind-heartedness, as they always showed cooperation. The game
turns up to be a fiendish decoy where with assistance of the
treacherous and double-faced Shakuni the Pandavas lose everything
including themselves. They have a wife - Draupadi, and when the
Kauravas ordered that she must come before them and look upon her
humiliated husbands, the Kauravas then hanker after seeing her
undressed. But a miracle happens and her dress unwinds as if being
made of endless cloth strips. Draupadi then speaks loud to
Dhritarashtra and asks - did Yudhisthira put her at stake before or after
he became a slave? An emotional and impressive Draupadi's self-
defending long monologue makes everybody still for a long time until
suddenly, under the pressure of Draupadi's honesty and well-argued
words, King Dhritarashtra makes the result of the game void.

Duryodhana gets so angry that he invites the Pandavas to play a

second game where exile is at stake - either the Pandavas or Kauravas
spend 12 years in exile. The Pandavas lose again and go to exile.

After 12 years (with one more year of anonymity, which was the
Duryodhana's condition), they come back and the war between the two
family clan is imminent. Duryodhana refuses to accept their
concealment during the anonymity year; both family clans
communicate via messengers only. Krishna becomes one of them, too,
and with intention to stop the war he demands only five villages for the
Pandavas. Duryodhana refuses this offer too.

Divine Weapons

In the Mahabharata, Divine Weapons are used and here is a brief

overview of them:
 • Agneyastra is the fire weapon, which belongs to God Agni,
master of the flames. Drona and Arjuna used it.
• Brahmastra is the Brahma's weapon. It is the most sinister
weapon and few trustworthy scholars suggested that it could
have the power of atomic destructiveness.
• Gandiva is a miraculous bow God Agni gave to Arjuna.
• Kaumodaki is the Lord Vishnu's invincible celestial mace.
• Narayanastra is the missile weapon of Lord Vishnu.
• Pashupatastra is the Lord Shiva's weapon, the most destructive
one.
• Vajra is the weapon of Indra, a combination of sword, mace and
spear.
• Vimana (also Viman, Vihmana, Viwan) is the Sanskrit term for a
flying machine and it has several occurrences in the
Mahabharata. It is translated with words such as "celestial car" or
"celestial vehicle" and an example from the Mahabharata
(Ganguli English translation) is: "The gods also, with their
spouses, respectfully invited thereto, came on their celestial cars
and seated thereon shone like blazing fires."
• Vishnu's chakra (Sudarsana discus) is a sharp spinning disc
Krishna used as a very dangerous weapon.

Conclusion

The Epic Mahabharata is the book about the two family clan - the
Pandavas and Kauravas, where Krishna is understood as the avatar of
God Vishnu and who appears in His true form also to Arjuna in a
dialogue on the battlefield few moments before the war takes place.
This probably the most precious historical dialogue is written in a
particular part of the Mahabharata - Bhagavadgita (or Bhagavad Gita),
where Krishna shines light on many Arjuna's doubts about going to
war. For example, Arjuna asks, "How can I fight with people whom I
respect?" But Krishna answers that going away without responding to
such humiliation would result in historical records referring to the
Pandavas as cowards. Apart from many other things, Krishna gives to
Arjuna also answers to many religions questions including those about
life after death and the immortality of soul.

Finally, the Pandavas win the war.