In the ancient and majestic city of Hastinapur, the capital of the Kuru dynasty, there once stood a throne that carried the weight of the heavens and the earth. The story of the Pandavas and the Kauravas begins not with their birth, but with a vacuum of power and a lineage on the brink of extinction. King Shantanu’s descendants faced a crisis when his son, Vichitravirya, died without leaving any heirs. The Queen Mother, Satyavati, desperate to keep the lunar dynasty alive, called upon her firstborn son, the sage Vyasa, who had been born of her union with the sage Parashara before her marriage to the king. Vyasa was a man of immense spiritual power and asceticism, and Satyavati requested that he perform the rite of Niyoga with Vichitravirya’s widows, Ambika and Ambalika, to provide the kingdom with an heir.
When Vyasa appeared before Ambika, his fearsome and unkempt appearance as an ascetic terrified her. In her fear, she closed her eyes tightly throughout their union. As a result of her closing her eyes, her son Dhritarashtra was born blind. Because he was blind, he was traditionally deemed unfit to rule the kingdom despite being the elder brother. When Vyasa approached the second queen, Ambalika, she turned pale with fright. Consequently, her son Pandu was born with a pale complexion and a frail constitution. A third son, Vidura, was born to a maidservant who remained calm and devoted during her meeting with the sage; Vidura was born healthy and wise, embodying the spirit of Dharma, yet his social status prevented him from taking the throne. Thus, the stage was set: Dhritarashtra the blind and Pandu the pale grew up under the guardianship of their uncle, the great warrior-regent Bhishma.
As they reached adulthood, Pandu was crowned King of Hastinapur because of Dhritarashtra’s blindness. Dhritarashtra married Gandhari, a princess from the kingdom of Gandhara. Upon learning that her husband was blind, Gandhari made the monumental sacrifice of blindfolding herself for life, vowing never to enjoy a sight that her husband could not behold. Pandu, meanwhile, married two wives: Kunti, a princess of the Vrishni clan, and Madri, the sister of the King of Madra. Pandu was a mighty warrior and expanded the empire significantly, but his reign was destined to be short-lived due to a tragic encounter in the forest. While hunting, Pandu shot a pair of deer that were actually the sage Kindama and his wife in animal form. As he lay dying, Kindama cursed Pandu, declaring that if he ever approached a woman with desire, he would instantly perish. Stricken with grief and unable to father children to continue his line, Pandu renounced his throne and retreated into the forest with Kunti and Madri to live a life of asceticism.
In the quietude of the forest, Pandu lamented his childless state, believing that a man without a son could not attain the higher realms of the afterlife. It was then that Kunti revealed a secret from her youth. Years earlier, she had served the temperamental sage Durvasa with such devotion that he had granted her a divine mantra. This mantra allowed her to summon any god she desired, and that god would grant her a son equal to himself in power. In her curiosity as a young girl, she had once summoned Surya, the Sun God, resulting in the birth of Karna, whom she had sadly abandoned to protect her honor. Now, with Pandu’s permission, Kunti decided to use the mantra for the sake of the Kuru lineage.
First, she summoned Yama, the God of Justice and Dharma. From this union was born Yudhisthira, a child destined to be the most righteous of men, unwavering in his devotion to truth. Next, seeking strength, Kunti summoned Vayu, the God of the Wind. From Vayu was born Bhima, a child of such immense physical power that the ground shook beneath his cradle. Finally, she summoned Indra, the King of the Gods, who granted her Arjuna, a son destined to be the greatest archer and warrior the world had ever seen. Seeing Kunti’s success, the second wife, Madri, expressed her desire for children. Kunti shared the mantra with her once. Madri, with great wisdom, summoned the twin Ashvini Kumaras, the physicians of the gods. They blessed her with two sons, Nakula and Sahadeva, who were unparalleled in beauty, equestrian skill, and swordplay. These five brothers became known as the Pandavas.
While the Pandavas were being born in the serenity of the forest, a different and more disturbing miracle was unfolding back in the palace of Hastinapur. Gandhari had become pregnant shortly after her marriage to Dhritarashtra, but her pregnancy lasted for an agonizing two years. When she heard that Kunti had already given birth to a son in the forest, Gandhari, in a fit of frustration and despair, struck her own womb. Instead of a child, she delivered a hard, cold mass of flesh that looked like a grey stone. Horrified, she was about to throw it away when the sage Vyasa appeared and intervened. He instructed her to prepare one hundred and one jars filled with clarified butter (ghee). Vyasa then sprinkled the mass of flesh with cool water, and it divided into one hundred and one distinct pieces. Each piece was placed into a jar and sealed. Vyasa told Gandhari to wait patiently for another two years.