Report on Annual Function

Story of the Mahabharata

  Parts of this Feature
• Mahabharata Book 1
• Mahabharata Book 2
• Mahabharata Book 3
• Mahabharata Book 4
• Mahabharata Book 5
• Mahabharata Book 6
• Mahabharata Book 7
• Mahabharata Book 8
• Mahabharata Book 9
• Mahabharata Book 10
• Mahabharata Book 11
• Mahabharata Book 12
• Conclusion
• Epilogue
• Summary
• Glossary




Summarized by Prof. James L. Fitzgerald   Parts of this Feature
• Mahabharata Book 1
• Mahabharata Book 2
• Mahabharata Book 3
• Mahabharata Book 4
• Mahabharata Book 5
• Mahabharata Book 6
• Mahabharata Book 7
• Mahabharata Book 8
• Mahabharata Book 9
• Mahabharata Book 10
• Mahabharata Book 11
• Mahabharata Book 12
• Conclusion
• Epilogue
• Summary
• Glossary




The innermost narrative kernel of the Mahabharata tells the story of two sets of paternal first cousins--the five sons of the deceased king Pandu [pronounced PAAN-doo] (the five Pandavas [said as PAAN-da-va-s]) and the one hundred sons of blind King Dhritarashtra [Dhri-ta-RAASH-tra] (the 100 hundred Dhartarashtras [Dhaar-ta-RAASH-tras])--who became bitter rivals, and opposed each other in war for possession of the ancestral Bharata [BHAR-a-ta] kingdom with its capital in the "City of the Elephant," Hastinapura [HAAS-ti-na-pu-ra], on the Ganga river in north central India. What is dramatically interesting within this simple opposition is the large number of individual agendas the many characters pursue, and the numerous personal conflicts, ethical puzzles, subplots, and plot twists that give the story a strikingly powerful development.

The five sons of Pandu were actually fathered by five Gods (sex was mortally dangerous for Pandu, because of a curse) and these heroes were assisted throughout the story by various Gods, seers, and brahmins, including the seer Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa [VYAA-sa] (who later became the author of the epic poem telling the whole of this story), who was also...