Week 9: Reading Diary A - The Mahabharata

Reading Diary Pg. 1-39
Mahabharata by R.K. Narayan

• Shantanu is a Kuru king of the city of Hastinapura. He is a descendent of the Bharata race and the lunar dynasty. He is the youngest son of King Pratipa. Each of this siblings had gone down a different path and Shantanu just happened to become the king of Hastinapura by default. 
• Shantanu falls in love with a woman, who ends up being Ganga of the Ganges river. He asks her to marry him and he agrees under one condition, that he never questions her actions. He agrees, and they soon wed. 
• Time goes on and they soon have babies. Shantanu still does not know that the woman he has married is Ganga. She then drowns their newborn babies each in the river. Although Shantanu agreed never to question his wife's actions, he protests her against drowning their eighth child. This is when she tells him that she is the river Ganga.
• The story goes, that she is the river Ganga, and was incarnated into her present form in order give birth to eight gods. These eight gods would go by the name of the vasus, who are being punished with a human incarnation for stealing Vasistha's cow. By drowning the babies, they return to heaven. 
• She disappears into the river with the eighth child and later returns him to his father when he is fully grown. His name is Bhishma. 
• Since his wife has been gone, he eventually falls in love with another woman by the name of Satyavati. They later get married, and have two sons of their own - Chitrangada and Vichitravirya. 
• Chitrangada becomes king, but dies soon after. Bhishma then takes over and ruled as regent for Vichitravirya. 
• The king of the kingdom next door holds a swayamvara for his daughters: Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika. Both Ambika and Ambalika marry Vichitravirya. He later dies before ever having the chance to be a father. Satyavati begs Bhisma to take over and help his daughters to have children. He refuses because he took a vow of celibacy. They decide that the widows will bear children with Satayavi's son, Vyasa. 
• Ambika is terrified when she looks at Vyasa, because he is so ugly. She sleeps with him with her eyes shut, so their child is born blind. His name is Dhritarashtra. 
• Ambalika turns pale when she sees Vyasa, and therefore their child is born very pale. His names is Pandu.
• One of Ambalika's servants sleeps with Vyasa, and she reacts very positively her him. She bears a flawless child.
• Dhritarashtra marries Gandhari. She covers her eyes to share her husband's blindness
• Pandu has two wives, Kunti and Madri, but cannot have children
• Kunti has a mantra for obtaining sons from the gods. She conceives a child named Karna.