Avy-- do tell us more about Mahabharata
I should probably let Avy do this, even though the Mahabharata is one of my favourite works of Hindu mythology - alas I only read versions in English (C Rajagopalachari's translations being the standards when we were kids).
Very roughly:
Pandu and Dhritarashtra - two brothers, sharing the kingdom. Pandu's sons - the five Pandavas - Yudhishtra, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva. Dhritarashtra's sons - one hundred of them, colectively called the Kauravas, eldest being Duryodhana.
What's sibling rivalry between cousins called? Anyway, whatever it was, they had it. After many years of bickering and not quite successfully sharing the kingdom between them, Duryodhana plots with his evil uncle Shakuni to cheat/beat Yudhishtra in a game of 'dice (played with cowrie shells, if I remember rightly), first humiliatingf the eldest Pandava, his family and their colective wife Draupadi. Then, upon, all being reset to zero by the old king Dhritarashtra, playing once a again and sending the Pandavas into exile for twelve plus one years. Many adventures ensure during exile. After the exile is over Duryodhana tells the Pandavas he will not give them back their kingdom. So war! Seventeen bloody days at Kurukshetra, at the end of which internecine slaughter, all the Kauravas are dead. All the Pandavas friends and relatives (including sons) are dead. Only the five Pandavas are left standing, as it were, and Arjuna's son's (Abhimanyu's) widow is pregnant with Arjuna's grandson - who eventually rules the kingdom when the Pandavas retire.
For what it's worth they all end up in heaven - including the 'evil' Kauravas.
The tale takes many, many, many, many, verses to tell, and until the discovery of some ultra-long Ukrainian saga recently, was considered the longest poem ever written - about four times as long as the Iliad and the Odyseey put together (correct me someone?)
There are too many interesting stories, characters and ideas in the work for it to be adequately summarised, though, and I pity anyone who tries.
cheer
the sunshine warrior
