The Mahabharata Generation 3 Part 1

[cathschaffstump]

Because Ambika was frightened of Vyasa when he visited her, and she closed her eyes, the son she gave birth to was blind. This is bad news in ancient Indian culture, because even though Dhrtarastra is the oldest of the children of Vyasa, he cannot rule because of his imperfection.

Therefore, the kingship goes to the second brother Pandu, whose name means pale, because his mother paled upon seeing Vyasa. No, really.

Pandu does something stupid in a hunting encounter, and is cursed to not lie with his wives and have children. Ergo, Pandu cannot have heirs to the throne and he is banished to the mountains with his two wives to the mountains. In spite of his imperfections Dhrtarastra becomes king. We'll come back to Pandu and his wives next entry.

Because Dhrtarastra is king, he needs to marry. He chooses Gandhari. She finds out that her husband is blind, and in a strange but mythological maneuver, she decides she can't be higher than her husband and binds her own eyes forever. Some Indian mythologists think this is the ultimate act of passive-aggression.

Pandu and his wives begin to have children (um...yes, that should be impossible, but wait for part 2), and Gandhari becomes jealous. Gandhari, you see, has been pregnant for a year, well before the first child of Pandu was born, and still her children will not come. Therefore, Gandhari does what any impatient mother would do: she has her maid hit her belly with a steel rod. She gives birth to an iron ball. Needless to say, this is disappointing.

However, Vyasa, wise old man that he is, tells the nurse made to break the ball into a hundred pieces, and put each piece in a vat of water. The pieces eventually turn into 100 brothers, know collectively as the Kauravas. Imagine the family reunions.

The most important of the 100 brothers for the story of the Mahabharata are the oldest two--Duryodhana the eldest, and Duhsasana. The Kauravas hate the Pandavas, who we will meet next time.

Mirrored from Writer Tamago.