Epic Tale Begins: The Mahabharata Story – 1

The “Mahabharata” tells the story of a family descended from a powerful king named Bharata. He was the son of Dushyanta and Shakuntala. Bharata’s descendants are called the Bharata clan, and “maha” means great. So, the book is about the great story of Bharata’s descendants. One of Bharata’s descendants was named Kuru. He was both a king and a holy man who performed many difficult practices in a place called Kurukshetra, or the field of Kuru, named after him. It was on this field that a great battle took place.

Kuru had three sons: Dhritarashtra, who was blind and whose sons fought on the wrong side in the Great War; Pandu, who was the father of five princes who fought on the right side; and Vidura, who was wise and held an important position in the kingdom. The lives and actions of these men are narrated in this epic poem, which consists of eighteen volumes or sections called Parvas. Each Parva tells a different part of the story.

The poem was recited to a group of holy men resting in the Naimisha forest by Sauti, the son of Lomaharshana, also known as Agrashrava. When asked where he came from, Sauti said he had attended a great ritual, the Snake Sacrifice of King Janamejaya, where he heard the “Mahabharata” being recited. This epic was composed by the famous sage Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa. Krishna was named so because he was dark-skinned, Dvaipayana because he was born on an island, and Vyasa because he compiled and arranged the Vedas.

The holy men asked Sauti to recite the poem, and he did. This marks the beginning of the story that we will learn about in the next chapter.