The Grand-Ma’habharata

That day I visited my grandma’s house after 2 months and it felt so good. The whole day I was sitting with her and helping her with her mundane. My childhood was mostly spent with her, she is my first teacher and she is my best friend, I till date share everything with her and she is the best advisor for me. She is the main force of my energy, she is the one has cultivated me with good habits and most importantly with good values. Her stories before bedtime was so exciting one of them was of Mahabharata I still remember this one as this helped me to understand how Mahabharata an epic mythology commenced. That night I lied in my Grandma’s laps and asked her to tell that story again. She initially refused but my child like expressions made her say. She started saying:
Many of the characters in the Mahabharata are of divine origin. Others attained the status of demi-god by their valor and were received as heroes in Indra’s heaven. Yet others were the bearers of divine weapons and so the agents of Gods. These, combined with the many rishis and demons who take part in the epic story, make the Mahabharata a great storehouse of myth. Furthermore the epic took form over many centuries and therefore contains elements of Vedic mythology and, from later belief, mixed elements of the Vishnu and Shiva cults. The Mahabharata illustrates well both the conservatism of Indian thought and its seeming confusion. For example, while the heroes of the epic are considered divine avatars surrounded by myth, or a miraculously fathered by Gods, those of the gods who are characters, such as Krishna, seem to be no more powerful than the heroes, or at any rate the demi-gods, intervene on behalf of their protégés as special warriors rather than as divine beings with invincible powers.
The epic opens with an explanation of its narrator’s lineage. Vyasa was the son of the nymph Satyavati, who was seduced by the rishi Parasara. The sage, in gratitude for her favors, relived her fishy smell which she had inherited from her mother, an Apsara cursed to turn into fish, and also restored her virginity.
Vyasa was brought up secretly and in time Satyavati was seen by king Santanu, who fell in love with her. Santanu was formerly married to Ganga, who had become mortal women in order to bear Vasus. She had killed all her children at birth except Bhishma, who was Santanu’s heir apparent, and then abandoned her husband. The King was now old, but when he saw Satyavati he could not rest until he had married her. Satyavati’s father, however, would only consent to match on condition that Satyavati’s children should succeed to throne. Bhishma, seeing the anguish of his father, renounced his claim, and swore that he would never marry and never father any children.
Santanu and Satyavati were therefore married, and in due course they had two sons. But the aged Santanu died before these sons reached their twentieth year. Chitrangada, the elder, succeeded to the throne; but he had not reigned long before he embarked on rash military adventures, which led his death at the hand of a Gandharva king also called Chitrangada. The second son, Vichitravirya, then ascended the throne and was married to Ambika and Ambalika, two girls founf for him Bhishma. But Vichitraya suffered from the consumption and soon died, leaving no heirs.
A time-honored custom existed whereby if a man died childless it was incumbent on his nearest male relative to father a child on his widow, the child being taken as that of the dead man; for, without a son a man could not be admitted to the abode of the Pitris. Satyavati appealed to Bhishma to perform the office but he was refuse, for he had sworn never to have children. Satyavati then thought of her firstborn, Vyasa agreed, so Satyavati tactfull prepared the widows to expect their husband’s half-brother to visit them that night. Both expected to see the handsome Bhishma, and were horrified when they beheld instead the wild appearance and matted hair of the hermit Vyasa. In his fright Ambika closed her eyes, and the son she conceived, Dhritarashta, was born blind; Ambalika’s reaction was to turn pale at the sight of Vyasa and her son was therefore born pale(Pandu). As neither of these attempts was really successful, Satyavati insisted that Ambika try again. But Ambika rebelled and substituted her maid; The third resultant son was Vidura, who was in fact an incarnation of Dharma.
The Three sons were brought up by Bhishma, who acted as regent during the minority. When it was time for Pandu to assume the reins of office he married two women. The first was Kunti or Pritha, who was the daughter of a nymph and a Brahmin and sister of Vasudeva, father of Krishna. By Virtue of a boon she had received from the sage Durvasas, Kunti was able to have five Children by any God she chose. She had already availed herself of this boon once, and by worshipping Surya had received a son from him, Karna; however, she concealed his birth, casting him away on the river Aswa, whence he was passed to Jamuna and so on to the Ganges. Ganga saw to it that he was found and looked after by Radha and her husband Adhiratha, who was to be Dhritarashtra’s charioteer. Pandu’s second wife was Madri, sister of the king of Madras.
But Pandu had committed the sin of Brahminicide: one day while hunting he had mistaken a Brahmin Rishi and his wife for a pair of deer and had killed them. With his dying breath the rishi had cursed him to be unable to consort his wives, prophesying that he would die in the arms of one of them. Kunti, however, had recourse to Durvasa’s boon and bore three more children. By worshipping Dhrama she had Yudhisthira; by Vayu she had Bhima; and by Indra she had Arjun; Madri worshipped the Aswins and bore Twins, Nakula and Sahadeva, who were thus grandsons of Surya. One day, however, Pandu was walking in the forest with Madri. The beauties of scene intoxicated him and he embraced his wife, ignoring the rishi’s curse. No sooner he had done so than he fell down dead.
And I was fallen asleep. That night was precious to me it made me feel like a kid again. Wish that night had never ended and would have stayed as a cute little…