Mahabharat

The line begins — Shantanu and Ganga, Devavrata's terrible vow, and the births of Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura through Ved Vyasa. The Kauravas and Pandavas grow up together, but the resentment between them deepens. The Pandavas escape the house of lac, and Draupadi's swayamvar follows.

236 adhyayas →

Maya builds a wondrous hall at Indraprastha and Yudhishthira performs the Rajasuya sacrifice. Duryodhana's humiliation there turns to envy. The dice game follows, rigged by Shakuni, and Yudhishthira gambles away his kingdom, his brothers, himself and finally Draupadi — who is dragged into open court. This is the moment the war becomes inevitable.

81 adhyayas →

The longest parva — twelve years of the Pandavas in the forest. Arjuna performs penance, wins the Pashupatastra from Shiva, and goes to heaven for divine weapons. Sages tell them the stories of Nala and Damayanti, and of Savitri and Satyavan. At the end comes the Yaksha's interrogation, where Yudhishthira's answers win back his brothers' lives.

324 adhyayas →

The year of concealment — the Pandavas live disguised in the court of King Virata of Matsya. Yudhishthira as the brahmin Kanka, Bhima as the cook Vallabha, Arjuna as the dance teacher Brihannala, Nakula and Sahadeva tending horses and cattle, and Draupadi as the maid Sairandhri. Bhima kills Kichaka for his advances, and at the end Arjuna alone routs the Kaurava army and reveals himself.

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The exile over, the Pandavas ask for their kingdom, and Duryodhana refuses them land enough to fit a needle's point. Both sides gather armies. Krishna himself goes to Hastinapura as a peace envoy and asks for five villages — that too is refused. The Vidura Niti and the Sanatsujatiya belong to this parva. War can no longer be avoided.

199 adhyayas →

The war at Kurukshetra begins, with Bhishma leading the Kaurava army for ten days. It is here — between the two armies, as Arjuna sees his own kin and lets the Gandiva fall — that Krishna gives him the teaching we know as the Bhagavad Gita. On the tenth day, with Shikhandi placed before him, Arjuna brings Bhishma down onto a bed of arrows.

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Dronacharya commands for five days, and every rule of war is broken in them. Sixteen-year-old Abhimanyu is surrounded and killed inside the chakravyuha. Arjuna vows to kill Jayadratha, and Krishna veils the sun so that he can. At the end, a half-truth — 'Ashwatthama is dead' — makes Drona lay down his weapons, and Dhrishtadyumna beheads him.

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Karna commands for two days. Shalya drives his chariot and spends every moment breaking his spirit. Bhima kills Dushasana and fulfils Draupadi's vow. In the end Karna's chariot wheel sinks into the earth, his curses strip him of his weapons, and Arjuna's arrow finds him unarmed — the most tragic moment in the Mahabharat.

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Shalya commands for half a day and is killed. The Kaurava army scatters, and Duryodhana hides in the waters of Lake Dwaipayana. Drawn out, he fights Bhima with the mace; at Krishna's signal Bhima breaks the rules and strikes him on the thigh, and Duryodhana falls.

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The darkest parva. The dying Duryodhana makes Ashwatthama his commander. That night Ashwatthama, with Kripacharya and Kritavarma, falls upon the sleeping Pandava camp and kills everyone in it, including Draupadi's five sons. He looses the Brahmastra at Uttaraa's unborn child; Krishna saves the child — Parikshit — and curses Ashwatthama to wander for ages.

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The field after the war, where neither victory nor defeat means anything any more. Gandhari, Kunti and thousands of women search for their dead. Gandhari lifts her blindfold and delivers the most sorrowful lament in the epic, cursing Krishna that his clan will destroy itself as hers has. Vidura and Vyasa hold up a grief-stricken Yudhishthira.

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The largest and deepest parva. Broken by the guilt of the war, Yudhishthira refuses the throne. Bhishma, lying on his bed of arrows and waiting for Uttarayan, teaches him at length on the duties of a king, on dharma in times of crisis, and on liberation. The Vishnu Sahasranama belongs to this parva. This is the Mahabharat's philosophical heart — how to live after the war.

365 adhyayas →

Bhishma's teaching continues — on giving, austerity, non-violence, truth, the householder's duties and the workings of karma. Yudhishthira's questions here are small and very practical: which gift is the greatest, what a woman's dharma is, what fruit follows which act. At last Uttarayan arrives, and Bhishma gives up his life.

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Yudhishthira performs the Ashvamedha sacrifice in atonement. Krishna gives Arjuna the Anugita — a second, quieter telling of the Gita, because Arjuna had forgotten the first. The sacrificial horse wanders from land to land and Arjuna fights many kings, among them his own son Babhruvahana. Parikshit is born.

96 adhyayas →

Fifteen years on, Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, Kunti and Vidura leave for the forest to live as hermits. Vidura, deep in austerity, merges into Yudhishthira himself. By his power Vyasa raises the dead warriors from the Ganga for a single night, so that everyone may meet those they lost. In the end a forest fire takes Dhritarashtra, Gandhari and Kunti, who meet it calmly.

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Gandhari's curse comes true. Thirty-six years later the Yadavas turn on one another at Dwarka and destroy themselves with iron clubs. Balarama leaves his body in yoga. Krishna rests in the forest, where a hunter named Jara mistakes his foot for a deer and looses an arrow — and Krishna completes his avatar. The sea swallows Dwarka.

9 adhyayas →

The shortest parva, and perhaps the most moving. Leaving the kingdom to Parikshit, the five Pandavas and Draupadi set out on their last journey towards the Himalayas. A dog follows them the whole way. One by one Draupadi, Sahadeva, Nakula, Arjuna and Bhima fall. Only Yudhishthira and the dog reach the top — and Yudhishthira refuses heaven unless the dog is allowed in with him.

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In heaven Yudhishthira finds Duryodhana seated and his own brothers absent — so he chooses to leave heaven for hell, where his people are suffering. This was his last test. The illusion lifts and all appear in their true divine forms. Vyasa closes with the Bharata Savitri: the whole work distilled into a single cry.

5 adhyayas →