2.1.1 The 18 Parvas and the story line

Explained

Adi Parva: the family.

• The family (details in HC-MB-02): Shantanu and Ganga → Bhishma; Shantanu and Satyavati → Chitrangada, Vichitravirya; by niyoga, Vyasa → Dhritarashtra, Pandu, Vidura; Dhritarashtra and Gandhari → 100 Kauravas; Pandu's wives Kunti and Madri → the five Pandavas (Karna was Kunti's son before marriage).
• Teachers Kripa, then Drona. Drona's pupils captured Drupada, whose sacrifice then produced Dhrishtadyumna and Draupadi.
• Sub-stories in the Adi Parva: Kacha–Devayani, Yayati, Shakuntala–Dushyanta, Sunda–Upasunda.
• Khandava forest. Agni, as a Brahmin, asked Krishna and Arjuna for help. Indra kept sending rain to save his friend, the Naga Takshaka; Arjuna stopped it with a canopy of arrows. Through Varuna, Arjuna got the bow Gandiva, two inexhaustible quivers and the monkey-banner chariot; Krishna got the discus and the mace Kaumodaki. Maya, spared by them, later built the hall to repay them.
• The brothers' rule. Narada told them of the asuras Sunda and Upasunda, who killed each other over the apsara Tilottama. Whoever broke in on Draupadi with another brother was to go to the forest for 12 years. Arjuna broke the rule to fetch his weapons and save a Brahmin's cows.
• In that exile Arjuna married Ulupi, Chitrangada of Manipura, and Subhadra, whom he carried off from Dvaraka in a chariot on Krishna's advice (son Abhimanyu).

Sabha Parva.

• Maya's hall took 14 months: water looked like floor and floor like water. Maya gave Bhima a mace and Arjuna the conch Devadatta.
• Narada questioned Yudhishthira on good government; the verses begin with kacchit ("I hope…?"), so the section is the Kacchit Sarga.
• Bhima killed Jarasandha of Magadha in a wrestling duel at Girivraja; Krishna split a blade of grass as the signal. Jarasandha's son Sahadeva was made king.
• Digvijaya before the Rajasuya: Arjuna north, Bhima east, Sahadeva south, Nakula west.
• Rajasuya priests: Vyasa Brahma, Yajnavalkya Adhvaryu, Susama Udgata, Paila and Dhaumya Hotas. Krishna washed the feet of the Brahmin guests.
• Bhishma proposed the first honour (agrapuja) for Krishna. Shishupala of Chedi objected and was killed by the Sudarshana.
• Duryodhana fell into water in Maya's hall and the onlookers laughed. Shakuni, prince of Gandhara, proposed the dice game.
• First game. Yudhishthira lost his wealth and kingdom, then staked Nakula first, then Sahadeva, Arjuna and Bhima, then himself, and last Draupadi.
• Draupadi's question: had Yudhishthira lost himself before he staked her? Vikarna spoke for her; Karna mocked her.
• Bhima's two vows: to drink Dushasana's blood and to break Duryodhana's thigh.
• Dhritarashtra's boons: Draupadi asked for Yudhishthira's freedom, then for the four brothers', and refused a third boon.
• Leaving for the forest: Yudhishthira covered his face, Bhima looked at his arms, Arjuna scattered sand (the arrows to come) and Draupadi went with loose hair. Kunti stayed with Vidura.

Vana Parva highlights.

• Akshaya Patra from Surya, worshipped on Dhaumya's advice. It gave food until Draupadi had eaten.
• Durvasa came for a meal after she had eaten; Krishna ate a bit of leaf left in the vessel, and the sages, bathing in the river, felt full and left.
• Bhima killed Kirmira, Bakasura's brother. Sage Maitreya, mocked by Duryodhana, who slapped his thigh, cursed that Bhima would break that thigh.
• Kirata on Indrakiladri: the demon Mooka came as a wild boar; Arjuna and Shiva, as a hunter, shot it together. Arjuna knew it was Shiva when the flowers he offered to a linga appeared on the hunter's head. Shiva gave the Pashupatastra.
• In Indra's heaven Urvashi cursed Arjuna to live as a eunuch, because he called her mother (she had been the wife of his ancestor Pururava). Indra limited it to one year, which became the year as Brihannala.
• Bhima met Hanuman on Gandhamadana while looking for the Saugandhika flower.
• The python that seized Bhima was King Nahusha, cursed by Agastya. Yudhishthira's answers (a Brahmin is known by conduct, not birth) freed him.
• Ghoshayatra: the Gandharva Chitrasena captured Duryodhana. Yudhishthira had him freed: "among ourselves they are a hundred and we are five; against outsiders we are a hundred and five".
• Jayadratha abducted Draupadi. He was spared as Dusshala's husband, then won from Shiva the power to hold back four Pandavas (all but Arjuna) for one day.
• Karna gave his armour and earrings to Indra and got the Shakti weapon.
• Stories told: Nala–Damayanti (by Brihadashva), Savitri–Satyavan and the Ramopakhyana (by Markandeya), and the Dharmavyadha of Mithila, a meat-seller who taught the Brahmin Kaushika.
• Yaksha prashna: a deer carried off a Brahmin's arani (fire-sticks). Chasing it, four brothers drank from a lake against the Yaksha's warning and fell. Yudhishthira answered, chose Nakula to be revived (so that a son of Madri would live) and got all four back. The Yaksha was Yama; his boon: no one would recognise them in the incognito year.

Virata Parva. The Trigartas (under Susharma) raided Virata's cattle from the south and the Kauravas from the north (go-grahana). Arjuna, with prince Uttara (Uttarakumara) as charioteer, defeated the Kaurava army. Duryodhana said they had been found out too early; Bhishma counted the months, with the extra (adhika) months, and declared the 13 years complete. Princess Uttara married Abhimanyu.

Udyoga Parva (udyoga = effort).

• Pandava base: Upaplavya.
• Arjuna chose the unarmed Krishna; Duryodhana chose Krishna's Narayani army. Duryodhana secretly hosted Shalya on his way; Shalya promised a boon to his host and had to join the Kauravas.
• Envoys in order: Drupada's priest, then Sanjaya (from Dhritarashtra), then Krishna, who asked for just five villages and showed his Vishwarupa when Duryodhana tried to seize him. Uluka, Shakuni's son, carried Duryodhana's challenge.
• Vidura Niti, spoken through Dhritarashtra's sleepless night, forms the Prajagara Parva; the Sanatsujatiya follows. Kunti told Karna his birth.

After the war.

• Parikshit, son of Abhimanyu and Uttara, was struck in the womb by Ashwatthama's weapon and revived by Krishna; named so because he was born when the Kuru line had dwindled (parikshina). He was crowned before the last journey.

The last journey: who fell, and the fault Yudhishthira named

• Only Yudhishthira and the dog went on. He refused heaven without the dog, which was Dharma (Yama). Yama said he had tested his son three times: as the Yaksha, as the dog and through the vision of hell.
• Final states told by Vaisampayana: Karna into the Sun, Bhishma the Vasus, Drona Brihaspati, Abhimanyu the Moon, Dhrishtadyumna Agni, Balarama Ananta.