Hero Image & Title Thumbnail: Black-White Picture, Carved Mahābhārata epic, front right base corner of the main temple below Ellora Caves, Cave No.16: Kailāsanātha Temple, Mahārāshtra, Bhārata, photographed on November 11, 2024.
01.1 Adi Parva - The Book of the Beginning
First revision: Jul.22, 2022
Last change: Nov.26, 2024
Searched, Gathered, Rearranged, and Compiled by Apirak Kanchanakongkha.
In very brief summary01., the story told in the Mahābhārata (Adi Parva) is as follows:
Bhīṣma, the rightful heir to the Kuru throne of central North India, stands aside and swears eternal celibacy to enable his father Śaṃtanu to marry Satyavatī, whose father insists that the kingdom must pass to her heirs. However, the sons born from this marriage die childless, so the seer Vyāsa fathers a son to each of the two widows. Dhṛtarāṣṭra is the elder but cannot become king because he is born blind. In due course, his wife Gāndhārī bears him a hundred sons, demons in human form. Dhṛtarāṣṭra's younger brother Pāṇḍu cannot father children because of a curse, but his wife Kuntī can give him three sons who are fathers and are incarnate forms of various gods; she also helps her co-wife Mādrī to bear two further sons in the same way. The stage is now set for the eternal battle between gods and demons to be played out as a human conflict between the two sets of cousins, the hundred sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra (Dhṛtarāṣṭras or Kauravas) led by the wicked Duryodhana, and the five sons of Pāṇḍu (Pāṇḍavas): the righteous Yudhiṣṭhira, the aggressive Bhīma, the mighty warrior Arjuna and the twins Nakula and Sahadeva.
Before giving birth to the Pāṇḍavas, Kuntī had also secretly borne another divinely fathered boy named Karṇa, who a Sūta and his wife had brought up as their adopted son. Like the Kaurava and Pāṇḍava princes, Karṇa has been taught arms by the warrior Brahmin Droṇa. When Duryodhana first encounters him, he is delighted to find a man capable of matching the hated Arjuna's marvelous martial skills and secures his loyalty by awarding him kingship. He then plots to murder the five Pāṇḍavas by having them burnt alive, but they escape; not long afterward, all five of them jointly marry the princess Draupadī. Dhṛtarāṣṭra attempts to keep the peace by dividing the kingdom: his son Duryodhana will rule from the city of Hāstinapura, while Pāṇḍu's son Yudhiṣṭhira will be king in Indraprastha.
Viṣṇu (विष्णु) or Nārāyaṇa (नारायण), source: www.pinterest.com, sccess date: Aug.4, 2018.
From left to right: Ganesha wrote the Mahābhārata as taught by Rishi Vyasa. And Rishi Vyasa narrating the Mahābhārata to Ganesha (Only right picture) image from Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia, source: en.wikipedia.org, access date: May 16, 2017.
The Goddess Ganga Sculpture, source: ndtv.com, access date: July 30, 2022
Shantanu and Ganga's Marriage: (050).
SHANTANU MEETS THE GODDESS GANGA From the painting (Indonesian-style painting) by Warivick Goble, from page 284, "Indian myth and legend" (1913), source: commons.wikipedia.org, access date: July 31, 2022.
Shantanu falls in love with Satyavati, the fisherwoman, Painting by Raja Ravi Varma, source: enwikipedia.org, access date: Aug.05, 2022.
Bhīṣma or Pitāmaha or Gangaputra or Devavrata, source: www.quora.com, access date: Aug.05, 2022.
Birth of Dhritarashtra and Pandu: (062).
Pictures from Left to Right: King Dhṛtarāṣṭra listening to Sanjay narrating the events of the war, Source: www.bloggang.com, King Pandu with Kunti Maharani, Source: hmong.in.th, Access date: Aug.8, 2022, and Vidura, source: bonobology.com, access date: Aug.20, 2022.
The Pāṇḍavas, source: www.printerest.com, access date: Aug.11, 2022.
Bhima Poisoned: (082).
Bhima fighting with the Nagas, source: religion.fandom.com, access date: Aug.12, 2022.
Seven-Head Naga Bridges, in front of Angkor Wat. Siem Reap, Cambodia, took pictures on October 20, 2018.
Dhammadev or Dhammarāja means Yama or Yamarāja (the deity of the South, with 18 arms, holding no less than 16 swords, holding buffaloes as a vehicle) who must judge. justice for a dead man who has done any deeds by raising the barrel and pointing to the doer who does good deeds to go to heaven; if the doer commits a crime, he will go to hell. To the right of Yama (pictured on the right is Chitragupta, a doer-deed recorder of Yama). pictures were taken on October 20, 2018, at Corridor (South-East wing) of Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia.
References:
01. from. "The Mahābhārata," An abridged translation by JOHN D. SMITH, ISBN: 978-0-140-44681-4, PENGUIN BOOKS, 2009, Printed in the United States of America, www.penguin.com.
02. from. "The Illustrated Mahabharata: A Definitive Guide to India's Greatest Epic," ISBN: 978-0-2412-6434-8, Penguin Random House, 2017, Printed and bound in China, www.dk.com.
03. from. "The Mahabharata: Complete 18 volume," Veda Vyasa, Kisari Mohan Ganguli, tr. [1883-1896], Publishing in 2021 by Sanzani Publishing.
