Reading Notes: The Mahabharata part A

Painting of Karna

Source

1: The king Uparichara of Chedi was so devoted to religion, the gods feared he was trying to rob them, so they sent Indra to bribe him into calming down with a flying chariot. The king takes the bribe and drops some of his semen while flying it . This semen lands in a fish, who gives birth to a boy and a girl after being caught by a fisherman. He told the king about his find, and the king took the son with him, and the girl stayed with the fisherman family. The daughter one day agrees to bang a rishi in return for her fish smell to go away, and gives birth to Vyasa.
2: King Shantanu and his wife Ganga (the goddess of the Gangas river) of Hastinapura met when Ganaga was cursed to have sons and be in human form. Ganga in human form killed all her sons right when they were born so they could stay in their celestial state, as long as they left 1/8th of their power behind for her son, who would stay among men and never marry/reproduce. Ganga told the king she'd marry him but if he ever spoke harshly to her, she'd leave him. The king agreed, and was horror stricken as Ganaga killed their children. As she was about to kill the 8th, the king lost it and yelled at her. She told him the whole truth now, and left. She came back years later with the 8th kid and dropped him off, then left forever. This kids name was Devavrata
3: Shantanu walks along the river and smells Satyavati (The fish girl) and she told him her story and how Vyasa meditates in the forest (but will come to her aid if she needs it) and the king wanted to marry her, but fisherman said "only if you make fish boy your heir" but the king knew he couldn't screw over Devavrata
4: Devavrata wants to make his dad happy, so he asks the fisherman if he'd let fish girl go and tells him that he'll never accept the throne, so it would go to the king and fish girls unbirthed child. Flowers fell form heaven and a voice said "This is Bhishma" so Devavrata = Bhishma now. The king and fish girl wed, have 2 kids (Chitrangada and Vichitravirya), and eventaully the king dies of natural causes. Bhishma denies the crown so it goes to Chitrangada who wages war for 3 years and dies in battle, so it now goes to Vichitravirya who was too young, so Bhishma ruled for a little.
5: King Vichitravirya needed a queen, and luckily the king of Benares was having a strong man competition and the prizes were his daughters. (1 of them, Amba, was secretly already promised to a king, but she had faith her husband would win. Bhishma went on behalf of his brother and when he said he was taking them all, everyone tried to fight him, but he won and they all surrendered and he took the 3 princesses back home to his brother
6: Amba asked to leave so she could go to her husband, and Bhishma allowed it. She went to him, but he wouldn't take her back. She went into the forest and prayed to Shiva that she would kill Bhishma, Shiva told her she'd be reborn into a fierce warrior and kill Bhishma, so Amba sets herself on fire
7: Fish girl thought of her son Vyasa and he appeared. She asked him to bang the 2 princesses so there would be a powerful king, and he birthed Dhritarashtra (blind) Pandu (Pale) and Vindura (Reincrnation of Dharma the god of Justice) with a maiden. Pandu became king
8: Kunti, one of Pandu's wives, had a kid with a celestial and sent it down the river in a basket, it ended up in Radha and Adhiratha's arms. Karna (The baby) grew up to be a powerful bowman.
9: Pandu was cursed that he would die in the hands of his wives so he ran away to live in solitary
10: Pandu eventually died on a walk with Madri, and his 5 sons built a funeral pyre where he and Mandri burned together
11: Dhritarashtra (blind) became king and had hundreds of kids with his wife, the oldest being Duryodhana
12: Dhritarashtra's kids and the 5 sons of Pandu were always beefing with eachother, non more than Duryodhana of the Karuravas who was jelous of Bhima of the Pandavas (Pandu's kids)
13: Duryodhana poisoned Bhima who fell into the river Gangas, and regained consciousness  and found himself in the underworld of snakes. He was granted extreme strength and went back to the kingdom and his brothers and him kept this new power a secret.
14: Its time to train the boys to use swords, so Bhishma finds Drona, a scholar and swords master
15: Drona agrees to train the boys if they help him kill his enemy Drupada later, they agree.  The boys are all great warriors, but Duryodhana is still jealous of the pandavas
16: Drona is asked to train the Bhils, but Drona made the prince cut off his right thumb, so now they all pull a bow with their middle finger
17: A tournament is set to show off the boys training. Bhima and Duryodhana are still beefing, and Arjuna is introduced to be the most talented.
18: Karna shows up and asks of he can participate and he owns Arjuna. He talks trash,a nd Duryodhana sides with him and a battle is about to happen. Indra protects his sun Arjuna with lighting and clouds, and Karna is protected by his dad Surya the son god with his celestial armor gleaming. Duryodhana and company were on Karna's side and Bhishma and Drona were on Arjuna's side.
19: The boys now have to hold up their end of the bargain and kill Drona's enemy. The Kauravas were defeted, and the Pandavas came in to conquer the day. Drona made friends with Drupada (his enemy) and decided that he could live if he gave Drona 1/2 of his kingdom. They agree and Drupada knew he needed a godlike son if he wanted to win his kingdom back
20: Duryodhana convinces the king that the Pandavas were prideful and not true successors. He then convinces the king to build a wooden palace and send the Pandavas and Kunti there, and have it set ablaze while they slept. The king agreed, and when it was built, the Pandavas and Kunti asked to go to the wooden palace to see a festival, and the king sent a guard with them. The guard was named Purochana and he'd been told of the plan from Duryodhana and was on board.
Bibliography:
Mahabharata Online: Public Domain Edition

http://ouocblog.blogspot.com/search/label/PDE%20Mahabharata