Mahabharat - 1

'Samay' (Time) is the narrator of this epic. Samay introduces us to this Epic by stating that the Mahabharat is not just Bharat's war story. It is the story of the rise and fall of the Indian culture, a battle of good and evil, a story of light and darkness. Samay claims that none else but It can be the best narrator of this tale since It has seen it as it progressed.
Samay claims that Mahabharat is the making and breaking of relationships and its concluding outcomes and is the elixir of our lives. Every era has to go through these conflicts and there is a constant conflict between good and evil. As long as Time prevails, these battles will forever be fought. And Time is perpetual and endless. Hence, it is important that every 'present' should be told and assess this story so that it is ready for the 'future'. This battle is the duty of every 'present' era and the fate of every 'future' era. Therefore, Samay sometimes acts as a teacher, sometimes as a mother and sometimes as Rishi (ascetic) to prepare the 'present' for the 'future'.
This story does not actually begin when Lord Krishna sermonized the Geeta to Arjun or when Draupadi made fun of Duryodhan. It began much before these events. It begins when Bharat, son of Dushyant and Shakuntala, returns to the court of Hastinapur after his conquests. Bharat is hailed as a very wise and brave conqueror and it is time for him to choose an able Yuvraj, the heir apparent, to the throne. Bharat has 9 sons but he does not deem any of them fit to take on the mantle. After due thought, he appoints Bhumanyu, son of Bharadwaj, a commoner, as his successor. This was unheard of since a king's successor, by default, was supposed to be his (eldest) son. But Bharat stands by his decision. In his opinion, the prime duty of a king is to safeguard his kingdom and subjects. He feels that a democratic society, wherein one's Karma's were to decide one standing in life, and not his/her birth, would be a just society.
However, this Democratic form of government did not last long and declined by Shantanu's reign.
Shantanu's story begins thus. Shantanu was hunting by the river Ganges when he met Ganga and fell in love with her. He proposes to Ganga and she accepts his proposal on the condition that he would not question any of her actions, however strange they may be. And if his curiosity was to get the better of him, she would answer his question and leave him. He accepts the condition and they tie the knot. Ganga bears a child and Shantanu is jubilant. But, every time a child is born, Ganga sacrifices it into the river. Shantanu is bound by his word that he would not question her behavior. This repeats every time a child is born and Shantanu is shocked but speechless.
After the 7th child finds its watery grave, Shantanu can not hold his silence any longer and stops Ganga from drowning their 8th son. Ganga explains to him that Shantanu, Ganga and the 8 children were all living a curse. Shantanu was King Mahabhishak in his past life and Lord Indra was his friend. During one of Heaven's parliamentary sessions, Mahabhishak could not get his eyes off of Ganga, which was considered lecherous behavior and was cursed by Brahma to live a mortal's life on Earth (Mrutyulok). So was Ganga. The 8 children were 'Vasus' who were cursed by Sage Vashisht to be born on Earth. Now Ganga promised that she would help them get out of the circle of life and death by granting them a short life. Unfortunately, the 8th child, who Ganga named Devavrat, would have to live his life on Earth. So Ganga takes off with Devavrat to the Heavens. On his way back after bidding adieu to Ganga, Shantanu finds 2 abandoned babies. He takes them with him and names them Kripa and Kripi. He hands these kids over to the Rajguru to take care of.
Shantanu awaits his son, Devavrat's return for 16 years. One day, while on his long drives, he finds that a young archer stops the flow of Ganga with a hail of arrows. On enquiry, he finds out that he is Devavrat. Ganga appears and introduces him to the Devavrat. Devavrat has been trained in the Vedas by Vashishta, political sciences from Brihaspati, and archery from Parashuram. That, apparently, was the best schooling anyone could dream of. He was an exceptionally skilled adminstrator and an undefeatable warrior.
Now, Devavrat turns out to be a very brave and able leader. He proves his mettle by single-handedly vanquishing the Salva army. Shantanu is impressed and appoints Devavrat as the heir to Hastinapur's throne.

Everything's nice and dandy and father and son are off on one of their hunting expeditions when Shantanu meets Satyavati, a ferryman's daughter and is enticed by her. He proposes to her and she accepts with the condition that her father blesses them. He approaches Dashraj, Satyavati's dad and asks for Satyavati's hand in marriage. Dashraj accepts with the condition that Satyavati's offspring would ascend the Hastinapur's throne. Now Shantanu has already promised Devavrat the throne and it would be unjust on his part to break his word. So he fumes away from Dashraj and is heartbroken. He spends most of his time thinking of Satyavati. This worries Devavrat who has no clue as to what has happened. All he sees is that Shantanu is sad and disillusioned. Shantanu does not let in on whats wrong either. So Devavrat gets some insider information from the charioteer who tells him that Shantanu spends most of the day looking at Satyavati from the banks of river Yamuna. Devavrat confronts Dashraj as to what exactly happened and after finally getting to know the conditions and that he would alleviate the problem for his dad, he takes up the bhishan pratigya - the vow of life-long celibacy and of service to whoever sat of the throne of Hastinapur. This ensured that neither he, nor his progeny would stake claim to the throne of Hastinapur.

Painting by Raja Ravi Varma

Now this was a big deal in the yesteryears when it was important for kings and princes to safe guard the royal lineage. Hence Devavrat was better known as Bhishma, meaning 'He of the terrible oath'. Even Samay salutes Bhisma and claims that there never was such an oath taken nor will there be such an oath that would move the whole universe. Shantanu blesses Bhisma with a boon that he would remain immortal for as long as he wishes to.

Satyavati bore two boys, Chitrangad and Vichitravirya. Shantanu passed on pretty soon and Bhisma put Chitrangad on the throne. Chitrangad kicked the bucket in a battle and Vichitravirya was crowned king. Time passed by and it is time for Vichitravirya to tie the knot. The king of Kashi organizes a swayamvar for his three daughters Amba, Ambika and Ambalika. Unfortunately, he wouldn't want Hastinapur's king to be present as Shantanu had rejected his sister's hand for Bhisma. So, inspite of long ties with Hastinapur (Bharat was married to one of Kashi's princess'), and repeated suggestions of his prime minister, the king of Kashi does not invite the king of Hastinapur. Bhishma is enraged and barges into the court of Kashi during the swayamvar. He says he is the representative of Hastinapur's king and is there to take what rightfully belongs to Hastinapur over the ages. Nobody dares to confront Bhisma. The king is asked for permission to let the daughters go and he concedes. The thing is that Amba already loves the king of Shalva and inteded to choose him during the swayamvara. On his way back to Hastinapur, Bhishma is confronted by the king of Shalva and is defeated and sent back home packing. On arrival at Hastinapur, Amba makes it clear that she actually likes the king of Shalva. At this Bhisma honorably sends Amba over to the king of Shalva. But the king of Shalva would not hear of any such thing. He has lost his claim over Amba during his battle and would not accept Amba. So Amba heads back to Hastinapur and now wants to marry Bhishma (since it was he who had won over the other kings in Kashi). Bhishma cannot accept her. Woman scorned! She vows that she would be the cause of Bhishma's death, come what may.
What for God's sakes was Bhishma doing trying to drag the three babes over for Vichitravirya? Why couldn't Vichitravirya go over himself? This fact just amazes me! There might be a point I am missing here.
Out of the blue, Vichitravirya dies without leaving behind any successors.
Supposedly, he contracted tuberculosis.
The question arises as to who is to ascend the throne now. Satyavati asks Bhishma to marry Ambika and Ambalika. But Bhishma is adamant about his vow and does not budge. So she sends Bhishma to Rishi Ved Vyas for an answer.
There Ved Vyas reveals Bhishma that Satyavati is his mother! While Satyavati used to ferry passengers across the Yamuna river, she'd met up with Sage Parashar and gave birth to Rishi Vyas. This was because Sage Parashar knew that the burden of history would lie on Satyavati's shoulders and that Ved Vyas would be the answer. They fornicated in the middle of the river on an island under cover of artificially created darkness/mist and a Ved Vyas was born (a.k.a Krishna(dark)-Dwaipayana (born in an island)). Satyavati remained a virgin and Ved Vyas grew into adulthood in minutes and left with the promise that he would come whenever Satyavati needed his help. The condition that Satyavati put forth for this was that the odor of fish that clung to her (hence the previous name Matsyagandha) turn to fragrance!
Now, per the ancient Hindu customs, Niyoga is legal and moral. Satyavati instructs Ved Vyas to impregnate Ambika and Ambalika. Ved Vyaas was not much of a looker and Ambika shut her eyes while they were at it. Result being the kid would be blind. Ambalika turned pale at the sight of the dude, result being the kid would be pale and unhealthy. Satyavati wants to give this another shot but Ambika and Ambalika are scared out of their wits and send the maid. Ved Vyas goes ahead and copulates the maid and updates Satyavati that the offspring would be a learned one. (Wonder how that went along for him to say that!)
My comments: For obvious reasons, this Niyoga thing is cheesy to me. If Bharat had stipulated that the heir apparent would be determined by Dharma and not by birth, what was with Satyavati to get her illegal son to copulate her daughers-in-law? Basically, there wasn't much of the Kuru geneology strained down after all the cocktail going in. At the end of the whole tale, from the looks of it, looks like the sages had a romp. Well, thats how the epic narrates.