Vyasa had composed a poem and needed a scribe to write it down.

"Will you be my scribe?" he asked Ganesha, the elephant-headed god.

"I will," said Ganesha, "provided you do not pause in your recitation."

"I agree," Vyasa replied, "provided you understand each word's meaning before you write it down."

Vyasa recited, and Ganesha wrote.

Sometimes Vyasa said things that were confusing, and Ganesha would pause and think.

Once, when Ganesha's pen splintered, he broke off one of his own tusks to keep writing.

That was the first version of the Mahabharata.

This Mahabharata will begin with King Shantanu.

King Shantanu lived in a great palace in Hastinapura, but he had no queen.

One day he went hunting, and by the river he saw a beautiful woman. He loved the woman at first sight. "Marry me!" he said.

"I agree," the woman replied, "under one condition: you must never question my actions."

Shantanu agreed, and they were soon married.

A year later, their first child was born.

On that very day, the queen took the baby to the river and drowned him there.

King Shantanu was stunned, but said nothing.

He kept his promise to never question her actions.

To understand Shantanu's story, listen to the story of Mahabhisha:

King Mahabhisha had earned so much merit that he ascended to Indra's heaven. There he danced with the apsaras to the music of the gandharvas and drank sura; the wish-granting tree Kalpataru gave him everything he desired.

One day a breeze blew the goddess Ganga's garment aside. The devas looked away, but Mahabhisha could not resist: he stared directly at her naked breasts.

Indra cursed Mahabhisha to return to earth, and he told Ganga to take human birth and break his heart.

Mahabhisha was reborn as Shantanu, king of Hastinapura.

King Shantanu's queen drowned their first child in the river, and their second. One by one, she drowned seven children.

Shantanu said nothing.

When she gave birth to their eighth child, Shantanu shouted, "Stop! I forbid you to kill this child."

"The child will live, but I must leave you now," the queen replied. "I am Ganga, goddess of this river, and I came to earth in order to marry you, bear your children, and drown them as soon as they were born. Our children were the eight Vasus, gods of the eight elements, cursed to be born as humans."

Prabhasa, chief of the Vasus, had coveted the wish-granting cow of the rishi Vashishtha. Together with the other Vasus, Prabhasa stole the cow, but Vashishtha caught them and cursed them. "You will be born on earth as humans."

The Vasus begged Ganga to be their mother on earth and drown them, making their lives as short as possible.

Ganga agreed. She became the wife of King Shantanu, and she drowned their children as soon as they were born. But when the eighth child was born, Shantanu stopped her.

That eighth child was the incarnation of Prabhasa.

Shantanu named him Devavrata.

"I will take Devavrata with me now," Ganga told Shantanu, cradling the infant in her arms, "and return him to you later." She then disappeared into the river.

King Shantanu returned every day to the river, forever hoping that his wife and son would appear.

Then, one day, it happened: Ganga emerged from the river, together with a handsome young man. "Your son has learned the Vedas from the rishi Vashishtha," she said, "and Parashurama has taught him the arts of war."

Shantanu embraced his son and proclaimed him to be the crown-prince, his heir.

Ganga then returned to heaven.

King Shantanu went hunting one day.

Again, he saw a beautiful woman by the river.

Again, he fell in love at first sight.

"Marry me!" he said.

"You must ask my father's permission," she replied.

"Who are you?" Shantanu asked. "And who is your father?"

"I am Satyavati," she said. "My father is a fisherman."

"Let me marry your daughter!" Shantanu said to the fisherman.

"I agree," he said, "under one condition: when Satyavati bears you a son, that son must inherit the kingdom."

But Shantanu could not agree to this condition because he had named Devavrata as his heir.

Who was Satyavati? This is her story:

King Uparichara, resting beneath a tree, thought of his wife and ejaculated. He wrapped the semen in a leaf and gave it to a parrot to take to his wife.

But a falcon attacked the parrot, and the leaf fell into a river.

A fish ate the leaf... a fish who was actually an apsara cursed to live as a fish.

A fisherman caught the fish and found twin babies inside. He took them to King Uparichara, who accepted the boy but gave the girl to the fisherman.

She became his daughter: Satyavati.

Devavrata saw that King Shantanu was troubled, and Shantanu told his son what had happened: to marry Satyavati, he had to promise that her son, not Devavrata, would inherit the kingdom.

Devavrata did not hesitate. "I renounce all claims to the throne!" he said.

"But there is also the problem of your sons," Shantanu added.

Then Devavrata swore a dreadful oath. "I renounce all women, and I will never marry."

Henceforth he was called Bhishma, meaning "dreadful" because of this dreadful oath.

The gods, in admiration and pity, gave Bhishma the boon of choosing the time of his own death.

Shantanu then married Satyavati, and they had two sons: Chitrangada and Vichitravirya.

When Shantanu died, Chitrangada became king of Hastinapura.

Chitrangada was a great warrior, but he died in battle before he could marry and have sons of his own.

Bhishma performed the funeral ritual, and then Vichitravirya became king.

Vichitravirya was still very young, so Bhishma and Satyavati ruled the kingdom in his stead.

"He must marry as soon as possible and father sons to carry on the family line," Satyavati told Bhishma. "Because he is too young to win brides for himself, you must do that for him!"