Mahabharata

There are people on this earth who had great powers. They were patient,
powerful and devoted. There was a princess named Kunti. She had wonderful dreams.
One day, Sage Durwas paid her a visit. The princess served him well. In return, he
gifted her five boons. He said the these five unique boons would help her obtain sons
from Gods. Without thinking to much Kunti immediately as the God of sun for a child.
She became unwed mother and attracted to mockery. Karan is the son of sun god.
Kunti left him to the mercy of River Ganges. Later on the princess married Pandu and
got sons Arjun, Bheema, and Yudhishthir.She gave the mantra to Madri who had twin
sons. Madri was Pandu’s second wife. The twins were named Nakul and Sahadev, they
were exellent swordsman. Pandu have five Pandavas. Drithashtra has 100 Kauravas.
Drithashtra is Pandu’s blind brother had a wife named Gandhari. They had 100 sons
called Kauravas, Duryodhan was the eldest of Kauravas. The princes grew up together
and they became disciples of Sage Dronacharya. There was strong hostility between
them and they fought each other. Years have past the Pandavas and Kauravas have
grew.
In an arena, Grandsire Bhishma talked to the people, he is praising how skillful
warriors the Pandavas and Kauravas have become. That day as Dronacharya their
teacher gave them a permission, they will exhibit their weapon skills. Prince Duryodhan
will represent the Kauravas and Prince Bheemsem will represent the Pandavas in Mace
Duel. Their teacher Dronacharya ask Bhishma to stop their fight and proceed to achery.
Dronacharya invited Arjun inside the arena to show his skills and Arjun was praised by
his teacher as the world greatest archer but someone did not agree with the teacher’s
praising. It was Karan he is a son of a charioteer. When Kunti heard the charioteer’s
name she remembered his son and told herself that Karan isn’t a charioteer’s, it’s her
eldest son. Arjun doesn’t want to fight Karan because he is just a charioteer’s son. The
teacher objected him to participate because it’s for kings and princes only. Because
Arjun only wants to fight a king or a prince, a friend of Karan declared him the King of
Ang, and the teacher called Arjun for them to start the fight. Dronacharya declared that
Arjun and Karan have an equal skill. Drithashtra asked Vidhur to declare King Pandu’s
eldest son Yudhishthir as the crowned prince.

Duryodhan got mad because his uncle Pandu stole his father’s throne and now
Yudhishthir snatched the throne from him and because of that they develop a plan to
get rid the Pandavas or burn them in to ashes. Duryodhan’s men started burning the
House of the Pandavas while they are sleeping but Bheema caught one of Duryodhan’s
men and killed him. He immediately wake up his brothers and his mother for them to
escape their home. Duryodhan told Grandsire that the Pandavas and Kunti was burnt
alive but the truth is the Pandavas have escaped the burning palace and hid across
river ganes. As they were staying for the night in the forest and Bheema is looking out
for demons, one demoness change her looks for Bheema to be astounded of her
beauty and she succeded on her plan. That night Bheema killed two demons and
married the demon named Hidimba and they had demon child called Ghatotkach. They
then heard about a swayamvar being organised for the princess of Panchal, and went at
Panchal to see the festivities. According to their practice, they left their mother home
and set out for alms: they reached the swayamvar hall where the king was giving away
things most lavishly to alms seekers. The brothers sat themselves down in the hall to
watch the fun: the princess Draupadi, born of fire, was famed for her beauty and every
prince from every country for miles around had come to the swayamvar, hoping to win
her hand. The conditions of the swayamvar were difficult: a long pole on the ground had
a circular contraption spinning at its top. On this moving disc was attached a fish. At the
bottom of the pole was a shallow urn of water. A person had to look down into this
water-mirror, use the bow and five arrows that were provided, and pierce the fish
spinning on top. Five attempts were allowed. It was evident that only an extremely
skilled archer, such as the now presumed dead Arjun, could pass the test.

One by one, the kings and princes tried to shoot the fish, and failed. Some could
not even lift the bow; some could not string it. The Kauravas and Karna were also
present. Karna picked up the bow and strung it in a moment, but was prevented from
taking aim when Draupadi declared she would not marry anyone from the Suta clan.
After every one of the royals had failed, Arjuna, the third Pandava, stepped up to the
pole, picked up the bow, strung it, affixed all of the five arrows to it, looked down into the
water, aimed, shot, and pierced the fish's eye with all of the five arrows in a single
attempt. Arjuna had won Draupadi's hand.

The Pandava brothers, still in the guise of poor brahmins, took Draupadi back to
the hut they were staying and shouted to their mother who’s inside of their hut. Kunti ran
out of their hut saw that it wasn't alms but the most beautiful woman she had ever set
her eyes on, and stood stock still as the import of her words sank in on everybody
present.

Meanwhile, Draupadi's twin Dhrishtadyumna, unhappy that his royal sister should
be married off to a poor commoner, had secretly followed the Pandavas back to their
hut. Also following them secretly was a dark prince and his fair brother Krishna and
Balaram of the Yadava clan who had suspected that the unknown archer could be none
other than Arjuna, who had been presumed dead at the palace-burning incident several
months ago. These princes were related to the Pandavas - their father was Kunti's
brother but they had never met before. By design or happenstance, Vyasa also arrived
at the scene at this point and the Pandava hut was alive for a while with happy cries of
meetings and reunions. To keep Kunti's words, it was decided that Draupadi would be
the common wife of all of the five Pandavas. Her brother, Dhrishtadyumna, and her
father, the king Drupad, were reluctant with this unusual arrangement but were talked
around to it by Vyasa and Yudhishthir.

The prosperity of Indraprastha and the power of the Pandavas was not
something that Duryodhan liked. He invited Yudhisthir to a dice game and got his uncle,
Shakuni, to play on Duryodhan's behalf. Shakuni was an accomplished player.
Yudhishthir staked and lost step by step his entire wealth, his kingdom, his brothers,
himself, and Draupadi. Draupadi was dragged into the dice hall and insulted. There was
an attempt to disrobe her, and Bheem lost his temper and vowed to kill each and every
one of the Kauravas. Things came to such a boil that Dhritarashtra intervened
unwillingly, gave the kingdom and their freedom back to the Pandavas and Draupadi,
and set them off back to Indraprastha. This angered Duryodhan, who talked his father
around, and invited Yudhishthir to another dice game. This time, the condition was that
the loser would go on a 12-year exile followed by a year of life incognito. If they were to
be discovered during this incognito period, the loser would have to repeat the 12+1
cycle. The dice game was played. Yudhishthir lost again.
 For this exile, the Pandavas left their ageing mother Kunti behind at Hastinapur,
in Vidur's place. They lived in forests, hunted game, and visited holy spots. At around
this time, Yudhishthir asked Arjuna to go to the heavens in quest of celestial weapons
because, by now, it was apparent that their kingdom would not be returned to them
peacefully after the exile and that they would have to fight for it. Arjuna did so, and not
only did he learn the techniques of several divine weapons from the gods, he also learnt
how to sing and dance from the gandharvas.

After 12 years, the Pandavas went incognito for a year. During this one-year
period, they lived in the Virat kingdom. Yudhishthir took up employment as a king's
counsellor, Bheem worked in the royal kitchens, Arjuna turned himself into a eunuch
and taught the palace maidens how to sing and dance, the twins worked at the royal
stables, and Draupadi became a handmaiden to the queen. At the end of the incognito
period during which they were not discovered despite Duryodhan's best efforts the
Pandavas revealed themselves. The Virat king was overwhelmed; he offered his
daughter in marriage to Arjuna but he declined since he had been her dance teacher
the past year and students were akin to children. The princess was married, instead, to
Arjuna's son Abhimanyu.

At this wedding ceremony, a large number of Pandava allies gathered to draw

out a war strategy. Meanwhile, emissaries had been sent to Hastinapur to demand
Indraprastha back but the missions had failed. Krishna himself went on a peace mission
and failed. Duryodhan refused to give away as much land as was covered by the point
of a needle, let alone the five villages proposed by the peace missions. The Kauravas
also gathered their allies around them, and even broke away a key Pandava ally the
maternal uncle of the Pandava twins by trickery. War became inevitable.

Just before the war bugle was sounded, Arjuna saw arrayed before him his
relatives: his great-grandfather Bheeshm who had practically brought him up, his
teachers Kripa and Drona, his brothers the Kauravas, and, for a moment, his resolution
wavered. Krishna, the warrior par excellence, had given up arms for this war and had
elected to be Arjuna's charioteer. Then followed a philosophical discourse that has
today become a separate book on its own the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna explained the
impermanence of life to Arjuna, and the importance of doing one's duty and of sticking
to the right path. Arjuna picked up his bow again.

The battle raged for 18 days. Casualties on both sides were high. When it all
ended, the Pandavas had won the war but lost almost everyone they held dear.
Duryodhan and all of the Kauravas had died, as had all of the menfolk of Draupadi's
family, including all of her sons by the Pandavas. The now-dead Karna was revealed to
be a son of Kunti's from before her marriage to Pandu, and thus, the eldest Pandava
and the rightful heir to the throne. The grand old man, Bheeshm, lay dying; their teacher
Drona was dead as were several kinsfolk related to them either by blood or by marriage.
In about 18 days, the entire country lost almost three generations of its men. It was a
war not seen on a scale before, it was the Great Indian war, the Maha-bharat.
 After the war, Yudhishthir became king of Hastinapur and Indraprastha. The
Pandavas ruled for 36 years, after which they abdicated in favour of Abhimanyu's son,
Parikshit. The Pandavas and Draupadi proceeded on foot to the Himalayas, intending to
live out their last days climbing the slopes heavenwards. One by one, they fell on this
last journey and their spirits ascended to the heavens. Years later, Parikshit's son
succeeded his father as king. He held a big sacrifice, at which this entire story was
recited for the first time by a disciple of Vyasa called Vaishampayan.

Submitted By:
Ana Madel Guiamlud
Novem Aniñon
Leif Bernardine Dela Cruz
Therese Alvin Rosaot
Jagem Brayl Da-Anton

Submitted To:
Richellemae Alimbon, LPT