eBook: 'The Mahabharata', The Great Hindu Epic

The Story of the Mahabharata Briefly

In some ways, the entire story of the Mahabharata is an explanation of how our world, the world of the Kali Yuga, came into being, and how things got to be as bad as they are. The Ramayana has its share of suffering and even betrayal, but nothing to match the relentless hatred and vengeance of the Mahabharata. The culmination of the Mahabharata is the Battle of Kurukshetra when two bands of brothers, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, the sons of two brothers and thus cousins to one another, fight each other to death, brutally and cruelly, until the entire race is almost wiped out. 

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The five sons of Pandu, the Pandavas, are the heroes of the story. The eldest is Yudhishthira, the King. Next is Bhima, an enormously strong fighter with equally enormous appetites. After Bhima is Arjuna, the greatest of the warriors, and the companion of Krishna. The last two are twins, Nakula and Sahadeva. These five brothers share one wife, Draupadi (she became the wife of all five of them by accident, as you will learn).

 The enemies of the Pandavas are the Kauravas, who are the sons of Pandu's brother, Dhritarashtra. Although Dhritarashtra is still alive, he cannot manage to restrain his son Duryodhana, who bitterly resents the achievements of his cousins, the Pandavas. Duryodhana arranges for his maternal uncle to challenge Yudhishthira to a game of dice, and Yudhishthira gambles everything away, even himself. The Pandavas have to go into exile, but when they return they engage the Kauravas in battle. Krishna fights on the side of the Pandavas, and serves as Arjuna's charioteer. The famous "Song of the Lord," or Bhagavad-Gita, is actually a book within the Mahabharata, as the battle of Kurukshetra begins. When Arjuna faces his cousins on the field of battle, he despairs and sinks down, unable to fight. The Bhagavad-Gita contains the words that Krishna spoke to Arjuna at that moment.

 The Pandavas do win the battle. Duryodhana is killed, and the Kaurava armies are wiped out. But it is hardly a happy ending. Yudhishthira becomes king, but the world is forever changed by the battle's violence. If you are familiar with the Iliad, you might remember how that epic ends with the funeral of the Trojan hero Hector, a moment which is utterly bleak and sad. The same is true for the Mahabharata. There are many truths that are learned in the end, but the victory, such as it is, comes at a terrible price.