Week 11: Reading Diary A

The story starts off by telling the story he heard from sage Sauti, who heard it a snake sacrifice. Sauti explains that the Mahabharata was composed by Vyasa, while Ganesha wrote it down. He then explains how Ganesha received his elephant head, which was Shiva trying to cover up his mistakes of ripping Ganesha's head off after being mad at him.

King Parikshit killed, who once killed a serpent, was cursed that he would die in the next couple of days by a serpent. The Naga Prince Takshaka arrived to kill him and manages to do so. Parikshit's son Janamejaya holds a sacrifice to destroy Takshaka and obtain revenge. Takshaka finds a hiding place with Indra in the heavens, which is revealed by Astika. He then asks Janamejaya to hault the sacrifice and he does as asked. Vyasa gets happy and tells his companion to tell the Mahabharata and this is where Sauti hears it.

The story starts off with a king in the heavens that falls in love with Ganga and so  reincarnates to return to Earth in the human form. After Shantanu (the king) becomes  king on Earth, he goes to the banks of the Ganga and falls in love with Ganga. She tells him that if they get married, he must not question her actions. So they get married and she gives birth to seven kids, one kid each year. Each time she would go drown the child, the eighth child is born and Shantanu begs to leave the child, Bhishma and disappears into the river.

The king of Chedi's sperm is accidentally dropped in a river and prints a fish. This fish is then caught by a fisherman and the baby girl, Satyavati, is raised by the fisherman. Sage Parashara falls in love with Satyavati and gifts her with the amazing scent of flowers. This scent makes King Shantanu fall in love with her. Bhishma, wanting his father to be happy, gives up his inheritance for Shantanu and Satyavati's child, Vichitravirya. Bhishma gets Amba, Ambika and Ambalika for his step brother Vichitravariya. Amba explains that she already promised herself to King Shalwa, so he lets her go. Vichitravariya dies before he can have children with his wives, so Satyavati asks her other son to pregnate Ambika and Ambalika. They each have a child with Vyasa and Bhishma deems Ambalika and Vyasa's son, Pandu the king.

Pandu marries his two wives, Kunti and Madri. Kunti has a mantra that allows her to be pregnated by a God. She tries this mantra out and gets impregnated by the Sun God, Surya. She gives this son, Karna, up. Pandu is then cursed to die if he ever makes love. So, he moves to the himalayas and allows Dhitarashtra, Vyasa and Ambika's blind son. Dhitarashtra marries Gandhari and create a hundred children. The first born was Duryodhana. Pandu also wanting children asks Kunti to use the mantra and creates tha Pandavas.

The Pandavas and Kaurava are taught skills by Drona, who asks his teacher fee;s by King Drapada. So they go and capture King Draupada. He then holds a show to show of their skills. This is when Karna shows up and is able to recreate Arjuna, Drona's best pupil, skills.