महाभारत

आदिपर्व (Ādi-parva)

Setting: From Vyasa's recitation at Naimisha to the rise of the Kuru princes

The longest opening of any epic. Saunaka's sages at the Naimisharanya request the story; Ugrashravas narrates it as Vyasa originally taught Vaishampayana. We get the cosmogony, the genealogies of the Kurus and Pandavas, the births of Bhishma, Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura through Vyasa, Pandu's curse and retreat to the forest, the births of the five Pandavas through divine invocation, the Kauravas' birth from the jar, Drona's tutelage, Ekalavya's thumb, the lacquer house at Varanavata, Bhima's slaying of Hidimba and Bakasura, Arjuna's winning of Draupadi, the partition of the kingdom, and Khandavaprastha's building.

Central figure: Bhishma the patriarch and the young Kuru cousins

सभापर्व (Sabhā-parva)

Setting: Yudhishthira's sabha at Indraprastha and the dice hall at Hastinapura

Mayasura builds Yudhishthira a sabha of unearthly illusion. Narada visits and inspires the Rajasuya yajna. Jarasandha is slain by Bhima in single combat. Arjuna conquers the north, Bhima the east, Sahadeva the south, Nakula the west. Shishupala insults Krishna at the coronation and is killed by the sudarshana. Duryodhana, humiliated by the sabha's illusions, returns home obsessed with revenge. Shakuni proposes the dice game. Yudhishthira loses kingdom, brothers, himself, and finally Draupadi. Dushasana drags her into the sabha; Bhishma stays silent; Krishna miraculously preserves her dignity; Bhima vows to drink Dushasana's blood. A second dice game sends the Pandavas to thirteen years of exile.

Central figure: Draupadi in the sabha

वनपर्व (Vana-parva)

Setting: Twelve years of exile across Kamyaka, Dvaita, Badari and the forests of India

The Pandavas wander the forest. Arjuna goes north for tapas, fights Shiva as the Kirata, receives the Pashupata astra and divine weapons from Indra, Yama, Varuna and Kubera. Bhima meets Hanuman who teaches him humility. Yudhishthira hears the Nala-Damayanti story, the Savitri-Satyavan story, the Rama-katha condensed, and Markandeya's puranic vistas. Jayadratha attempts to abduct Draupadi. Karna is stripped of his kavacha-kundala by Indra; Surya gives him the ekaghni shakti in compensation. The yaksha-prashna at the lake tests Yudhishthira; he answers and his brothers are revived.

Central figure: Yudhishthira learning to bear loss without bitterness

विराटपर्व (Virāṭa-parva)

Setting: The kingdom of Matsya, court of King Virata, the thirteenth year incognito

The Pandavas must spend the thirteenth year unrecognised. Yudhishthira becomes Kanka, a dice-master; Bhima becomes Vallabha, the cook; Arjuna becomes Brihannala, the dance-teacher in the antahpura; Nakula tends horses, Sahadeva cattle; Draupadi serves as Sairandhri to Queen Sudeshna. Kichaka, the queen's brother, lusts after Sairandhri; Bhima crushes him in a midnight match. When Susharma and Duryodhana raid Matsya's cattle to flush out the Pandavas, Brihannala-Arjuna defends single-handedly using the Mohanastra, defeats Bhishma, Drona, Karna and Duryodhana, and the thirteenth year ends victorious.

Central figure: Draupadi as Sairandhri and Arjuna as Brihannala

उद्योगपर्व (Udyoga-parva)

Setting: Embassies between Upaplavya, Hastinapura, Dwaraka and the gathering armies at Kurukshetra

Both sides muster eleven and seven akshauhinis. Krishna and Duryodhana both reach Dwaraka while Krishna sleeps; Arjuna asks for Krishna unarmed, Duryodhana for the Narayani sena. Sanjaya goes as peace envoy and returns empty-handed. Vidura-niti is delivered to Dhritarashtra by night. Krishna himself goes as the final ambassador; in the Krishna-vishti episode he displays his cosmic form in the sabha when Duryodhana attempts to bind him. Karna learns from Kunti and from Krishna that he is the elder Pandava, but refuses to switch sides. Bhishma is named Kaurava commander; Drupada and Dhrishtadyumna lead the Pandava forces. Both armies camp on Kurukshetra.

Central figure: Krishna the peace-maker

भीष्मपर्व (Bhīṣma-parva)

Setting: Kurukshetra, days 1-10 of the war

The most pivotal parva. Arjuna falters at the battlefield and asks Krishna to drive his chariot between the two armies. There Krishna delivers the Bhagavad Gita — 18 chapters of yoga, sankhya, karma, bhakti and jnana, culminating in the Vishvarupa-darshana. Arjuna takes up his Gandiva. Bhishma fights for ten days, devastating the Pandava army. On the tenth day, Shikhandi (whom Bhishma will not strike) shields Arjuna; Arjuna fells Bhishma with a hundred arrows. Bhishma lies on the bed of arrows, waiting for Uttarayana to release his life.

Central figure: Krishna as Partha-sarathi and Bhishma the patriarch

द्रोणपर्व (Droṇa-parva)

Setting: Kurukshetra, days 11-15, under Drona's command

Drona is anointed commander. He attempts to capture Yudhishthira; Arjuna foils each formation. On day 13 Drona forms the chakravyuha; only Abhimanyu among the Pandava side knows the entry, not the exit. Abhimanyu enters alone — Jayadratha holds the gap — and is killed by six maharathis breaking every rule. Arjuna vows to slay Jayadratha by sunset of the next day or self-immolate. Krishna engineers a brief eclipse-like darkness; Arjuna fells Jayadratha. Ghatotkacha is killed by Karna with the Vasava-shakti that was reserved for Arjuna. Drona, hearing the false news of Ashvatthama's death (the elephant), lays down his arms; Dhrishtadyumna beheads him.

Central figure: Abhimanyu and the cost of half-knowledge

कर्णपर्व (Karṇa-parva)

Setting: Kurukshetra, days 16-17, under Karna's command

Karna becomes commander; Shalya, reluctant, becomes his charioteer with the right to demoralise him with words. On day seventeen Karna and Arjuna meet. The wheel of Karna's chariot sinks. Karna asks Arjuna for a pause under the warrior's code; Krishna reminds him of every dharma he has broken — Draupadi's humiliation, the chakravyuha, the lacquer house silence. Arjuna fells Karna with the Anjalika astra as he struggles to lift the wheel. The half-brother conflict resolves in death.

Central figure: Karna the loyal, the tragic, the unredeemed

शल्यपर्व (Śalya-parva)

Setting: Kurukshetra, day 18, and the lake of Dvaipayana

Shalya commands for half a day; Yudhishthira fells him. The Kaurava army collapses. Sahadeva kills Shakuni. Duryodhana, alone, hides in the waters of lake Dvaipayana, frozen by his yoga of waters. The Pandavas find him; he refuses to fight all five. Bhima accepts single combat with the mace. Krishna signals to Bhima to strike below the navel — against the niyama — and Bhima shatters Duryodhana's thighs, fulfilling his sabha vow. Duryodhana, dying, names Ashvatthama the night commander.

Central figure: Duryodhana, finally alone

सौप्तिकपर्व (Sauptika-parva)

Setting: The Pandava night camp on the eighteenth night

Ashvatthama, Kripacharya and Kritavarma enter the sleeping Pandava camp at night. Ashvatthama invokes Rudra and beheads Dhrishtadyumna, Shikhandi, all five Upapandavas — the children of Draupadi — believing them to be the Pandavas. The Pandavas, away with Krishna, survive. Ashvatthama then releases the Brahmashira astra at Uttara's unborn child. Krishna revives the foetus; Pariksh.it is born. Ashvatthama is cursed by Krishna to wander three thousand years bleeding, immortal and unhealed.

Central figure: Ashvatthama the broken

स्त्रीपर्व (Strī-parva)

Setting: The Kurukshetra battlefield the day after the slaughter

Dhritarashtra, Gandhari and the women of Hastinapura walk the battlefield. Gandhari, who has never seen because of her blindfold, removes it for the first time to see her hundred dead sons. She delivers the Stri-vilapa — the lament of the women — and curses Krishna that his Yadava clan will destroy itself in 36 years, as her family did. The cremation rites of all sides are performed together. Yudhishthira accepts the throne of Hastinapura but is broken by grief; Vyasa and Krishna console him.

Central figure: Gandhari

शान्तिपर्व (Śānti-parva)

Setting: Bhishma on the bed of arrows; Yudhishthira at his feet

The longest parva. Yudhishthira, paralysed by guilt over the killings, refuses the throne until Bhishma, still alive on the bed of arrows, teaches him. Bhishma delivers raja-dharma (the duties of kings), apad-dharma (dharma in distress), and moksha-dharma (the path to liberation). Embedded are the Sanat-sujatiya, the Vishnu-sahasranama, the dialogue of the vyadha and the brahmin, and instructions on yoga, sankhya, devotion and karma. The parva is in itself a dharmashastra.

Central figure: Bhishma as the dying teacher

अनुशासनपर्व (Anuśāsana-parva)

Setting: Continued at the bed of arrows

Bhishma continues teaching: dana-dharma (charity), achara (conduct), the rituals, the duties of varna and ashrama, the laws of inheritance, food, tirtha-yatra, the worship of Shiva, the worship of Vishnu, the greatness of Krishna, of the cow, of the brahmana. Yudhishthira receives the final discourse. At Uttarayana, Bhishma releases his prana; he chooses the moment of his death through the iccha-mrityu boon he received from Shantanu.

Central figure: Bhishma fulfilling the boon of self-chosen death

अश्वमेधिकपर्व (Aśvamedhika-parva)

Setting: Hastinapura and the route of the sacrificial horse across Bharatavarsha

Yudhishthira performs the Ashvamedha yajna to expiate the killings. Arjuna follows the horse across kingdoms and fights every king who challenges it. He confronts and is defeated by his own son Babhruvahana at Manipura; Ulupi revives him with the naga-mani. Krishna delivers the Anu-Gita to Arjuna — a condensed Bhagavad Gita revised in peacetime. The horse returns; the yajna concludes; a half-golden mongoose appears, declaring this great sacrifice less than the meal of a poor brahmin family that gave away their last grain. The lesson concludes the parva.

Central figure: Arjuna meeting his son in battle

आश्रमवासिकपर्व (Āśramavāsika-parva)

Setting: Hastinapura and the forest hermitages on the Ganga

After fifteen years, Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, Kunti and Vidura retire to the forest as vanaprastha. Vidura merges into Yudhishthira in the yogic teaching of the parva. Vyasa, through tapas, brings up the souls of the slain heroes from the Ganga for one night so that the widows may meet them. Two years later a forest fire — kindled, the elders accept, by Dhritarashtra's own homa-fire — consumes Dhritarashtra, Gandhari and Kunti, who refuse to flee. Sanjaya carries the news to Hastinapura.

Central figure: Dhritarashtra finding sannyasa at the end

मौसलपर्व (Mausala-parva)

Setting: Prabhasa-kshetra on the western sea, 36 years after the war

Gandhari's curse ripens. A young Yadava princess gives birth to an iron club (musala). The Yadavas, drunk at Prabhasa, quarrel; the musala is ground to dust and washes ashore as reeds, which under Yadava hands become fatal weapons. The clan kills itself in a single afternoon brawl. Krishna performs the funeral rites of his own kin, then, sitting under a tree, is shot in the foot by the hunter Jara mistaking the sole for a deer; Krishna leaves his body. Balarama merges into the sea as the great serpent. Arjuna, arriving too late, escorts the Yadava widows to Hastinapura — and finds his Gandiva powerless, unable to defend them from common bandits.

Central figure: Krishna at the end

महाप्रस्थानिकपर्व (Mahāprasthānika-parva)

Setting: The Himalayas, the final journey northward

Yudhishthira crowns Parikshit. The five Pandavas and Draupadi, with a single dog following, walk north into the Himalayas, abandoning attachments and ornaments. One by one Draupadi falls (for partiality to Arjuna), then Sahadeva (pride in learning), Nakula (pride in beauty), Arjuna (pride in archery), Bhima (gluttony). Yudhishthira walks on with the dog. Indra invites him to Svarga in his own body but refuses to take the dog. Yudhishthira refuses to abandon the dog; the dog reveals himself as Dharma, his own father. Yudhishthira ascends bodily.

Central figure: Yudhishthira and the dog

स्वर्गारोहणपर्व (Svargārohaṇa-parva)

Setting: Svarga and a brief vision of Naraka

In Svarga, Yudhishthira sees Duryodhana enthroned and not his brothers. Indra explains: Duryodhana paid for his evils on earth and earned a kshatriya's heaven for dying in battle. Yudhishthira is then shown Naraka where his brothers and Draupadi suffer. He chooses to stay with them. The illusion lifts; the brothers and Draupadi appear in their true forms in Svarga. Yudhishthira bathes in the Ganga, sheds the last of mortality, and is reunited. The Mahabharata closes with Janamejaya hearing the entire epic at the snake sacrifice from Vaishampayana, who heard it from Vyasa.

Central figure: Yudhishthira choosing kin over comfort