Hey all, my name is Parikshit, and today I’m going to introduce you to my family tree. I will warn you, it gets a little crazy and can be hard to follow, but I think the story is worth listening to. So please try your best to follow along. I'll start with the furthest back my family knows and work my way to the present and to my story.

First, let’s start with King Vichitravirya, my great-great grandfather. He had two wives, Ambika and Ambalika, my great-great grandmother; they were sisters. Now, when King Vichitravirya died, he had no heirs, and Satyavati, my great-great-great grandmother, thought of her son from before her marriage, Vyasa. He's the famous author of my family's story. Vyasa came to the palace to give the kingdom an heir and given the two wives. Vyasa terrified Ambika so much that when she saw him, she closed her eyes. Therefore, Dhritarashtra was born blind. Ambalika was also terrified, but she went pale. Therefore, Pandu, my great grandfather, was pale.

Pandu married a woman named Kunti, who already has a son named Karna, and a woman named Madri. This son was Surya’s son and grew up so quickly that Kunti didn’t really raise him. Kunti had three sons: Yudhishthira, Bhima, and Arjuna while Madri had two sons: Nakula and Sahadeva. Arjuna is my grandfather, and Kunti is my great-grandmother. Now, all these sons were actually fathered by different deities, but Pandu always claimed them as his own as we all just let him. My real great-grandfather is the deity Indra. Pandu's five sons and their children (me included) are typically referred to as the Pandavas. They were really raised by Kunti though because Pandu died and when he did, Madri died with him.

My father was the son of Arjuna and his wife Subhadra. My mother is Uttara and she's the only wife of my father, Abhimanyu. My father was a great warrior who, unfortunately, died in battle before I was able to really meet him. When I was born, I was born dead, but Krishna brought me back to life. I was eventually made king of my grandfather’s kingdom, but I'm getting ahead of myself. A lot happened for me to become king.

So Dhritarashtra married Gandhari (she was an amazing women who refused to see since her husband was blind, but somehow raised some pretty crazy kids) and she had Duryodhana, Dushasana,and 98 other sons in total. These children are usually referred to as the Kauravas. There was always a big feud between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. They all grew up together after Pandu’s death. This meant it was a household with 105 sons, there were going to be fights. You see, the Pandavas were extremely gifted and very talented, which made Dhritarashtra’s eldest son, Duryodhana, extremely jealous. The Kauravas refused to make peace with my family, so we had no choice but for a war. The war was bloody and many died, including my father, Abhimanyu, and every single one of my uncles and aunts, and all of the Kauravas. My family won, but at great cost. It's this war that caused me to be born dead. This is how I was made the heir of the throne, even though I was the grandson of Kunti’s youngest son.

So while my family maybe complicated, but whose family doesn't have a little drama in it. And I’m so grateful for my family’s hard work that ended with me on the throne.

Bibliography: The Mahabharata, Public Domain Edition

Author's Note:

The most confusing part of the Mahabharata for me was the family tree. There was so many characters and so many character names and I just kept getting confused. So for my story, I decided to have it be from the youngest member of the Pandava family, Parikshit, and have him tell his family's story. It mainly focuses on the family tree to help me straighten things out, but also give a bit of the family drama involved at the end of the Mahabharata, because who doesn't like a little bit of family drama. This story also works as a summary of the Mahabharata, which I found really helpful while writing it. The Mahabharata just has so many characters, so this helped clarify everything for me and make sense of what I had read.

After some editing, I decided to focus more on the story of Parkshit's family, deleting some of the extra fluff about other extended family members and moving things around to focus more on the Pandavas as well. I also chose not to talk too much about Arjuna because you could go on and on about him and it would generally be hard to focus on Parikshit, who I'm trying to keep as the main character of the story.

Another reason why I liked this story is I tried to keep the tone as casual as I could. Kind of like if Parikshit was telling a friend about how he ended up becoming king or just trying to give a quick rundown of his family history. I think the casual tone makes it a bit easier to understand and follow as well. It was hard to summarize the Mahabharata into a short story, but I think I did a good job of covering the family drama of it all and had a fun time writing it.