Mahabharata for kids

Acharya Drona narrates his story of friendship turned into animosity with King Drupada and asks his students to capture the King. Pandavas successfully do so. Drona lets King Drupada leave with half his kingdom and Drupada swears revenge for his insult by Drona and has a yagna conducted. From the sacrificial fire, Dristadyumna is born is with the sole purpose in life to kill Drona. But along with Dristadyumna walks out Draupadi, his sister, from the fire.

Vasusena lies that he is a son of a Brahmin to enter Sage Parashuram’s school where he learns the science of invoking celestial weapons like the dreaded Brahmastra. But when Parashuram finds out about the lie, he curses Vasusena that he will forget how to invoke the weapon, at the time when he will need it the most, and kicks him out of his school.

Acharya Drona arrives to Hastinapur and starts teaching the Kuru princes the are of warfare and the use of weaponry. Soon Arjuna becomes his favourite student and he vows to make Arjuna the greatest archer in the world. When he encounters a tribal boy Eklavya with skills matching Arjuna, out of his insecurity, he askes the boy for his thumb so he cannot practice archery anymore.

The baby born to Kunti through Lord Surya that she had let go in the river is found by a charioteer named Adiratha and he takes the baby to his wife Radha. The overjoyed couple name this baby Vasusena. As Vasusena grows up, everyone notices his brilliance, his intelligence and his generosity. He has a strong desire to learn the skills of warfare and his parents send him to the best teachers available and they are all astonished looking at the skills the young boy already possesses…

While the Pandava and Kaurava princes are growing up in Hastinapur, in the nearby kingdom of Mathura, Krishna is born to Devaki and Vasudev. Devaki is the daughter of King Ugrasena and the sister of Kansa. Kansa is evil by nature and he imprisons his own father and usurps the throne of Mathura. People suffer under his tyrranical rule and there is prophecy that the eight son born to his sister Devaki will bring and end to his Tyranny. Kansa gets paranoid and imprisons Devki and Vasudev and ends up killing the first seven children born to them immediately upon birth. But when an eigth son is born to Devaki, miraculously the guards fall asleep and the prison gates unlock. Vasudev gets a dream that he is to carry Baby Krishna to Gokul and swap him with the daughter born to Nanda and Yashoda in Gokul. Vasudev is able to safely carry the newborn through a flooded river in the middle of thu der and lightening, guarded by the seven headed snake of Lord Vishnu named Sheshnag. When Vasudev reaches the prison, the guards wake up and Kans arrives to kill the baby who flies into the air and lets Kans know that his destroyer is already born and is safe in Gokul. Krishna grows up under the love and care of Nanda and Yashoda in Gokul while Kans tries every measure possible to find and kill Krishna. In doing so, he kills several innocent children born at that time.

Kunti invokes her boon from Sage Durvasa and has 3 kids namely Yudhisthir, Bheem and Arjun. She then teaches Madri the mantra who has teins namely Nakul and Sahadev. One day, Pandu having forgotten about the curse, touches Madri and loses his life. Madri soon dies of a broken heart too. Kunti and the 5 Pandava brothers are then taken by Bheeshma to the palace of Hastinapur where they grow up along with the 100 Kaurava princes. Duryodhana tries to kill Bheem, but he survives and is blessed by the King of Serpents to have the strength of a thousand elephants.

Dhritarashtra gets married to Gandhari who decides to blindfold herself to share Dhritarashtras misfortune. Pandu marries Kunti and Madri. Pandu accidentally kills a sage and his wife in a hunting accident and is cursed that he will die if he touches either of his wives again. While he is depressed that the kingdom doesnt have an heir, Kunti remembers a boon she had received as a child from Sage Durvasa and remembers trying the boon out of curiosity as a child and acquiring a son from the Sun God. Scared, Kunti had put the baby,who was born with gold earrings and a gold armor, in a basket and had sent the basket down a river.

King Vichitraveerya passes away soon after his marriage with Ambika and Ambalika and leaves Hastinapur with no heir. Queen Satyavati summons her first born Ved Vyasa to help bless the queens with heirs to the throne. Ambika who closes her eyes when Ved Vyasa blesses her, gives birth to Dhritharashtra who is blind. Ambalika gets scared of Vyasa too and is pale with fear when she gets blessed and gives birth to the frail Pandu, wheras a maid who sits in for Queen Ambalika the second time accepta Vyasa’s blessibg and gives birth to the wise Vidur. Dhritarashtra is not allowed to ascend the throne as he is blind, so Pandu becomes the new King of Hastinapur.

Amba, along with her sisters and against her wishes is “won” by Bheeshma in the Viryashulka arranged by Amba’s father, The King of Kashi. Amba faces rejection at the hands of Bheeshma and King Shalva and blames Bheeshma for her misfortune. Seeking revenge from Bheeshma, Amba ends her life and is reborn as Shikhandi, destined to be the end of Bheeshma.

King Shantanu marries Satyavati under the condition that Devavrat will not succeed the throne after him. So Devavrat takes a supreme oath to not marry and never become the king. He vows to be loyal to the throne of Hastinapur till his last breath. He is named “Bheeshma” and gets a boon to be able to choose his own date and time of death.