Mahabharata
The family, the names, the chapters and the connections.
A reference to keep beside the book. It covers all twenty chapters and shows only what you have read.
The family
Start with the older generations. Select a name for a short profile.
Set your bookmark at the top of the page and the family appears here.
Dhritarashtra and Pandu are half-brothers.
Dhritarashtra and Gandhari are married. Duryodhana is the eldest of their sons. These sons are cousins of the five Pandavas.
The Kauravas
…and their brothers.
Gandhari has one hundred sons.
Pandu was married to Kunti and Madri. Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva are his five sons in the royal household, and cousins of Dhritarashtra’s sons. The Birth parents view explains their divine parentage.
The five Pandavas
Their uncle and a counsellor. Half-brother of Dhritarashtra and Pandu.
The family’s guardian elder. He belongs to the generation above their fathers.
This view shows royal households. Birth parents are another matter. Open “Birth parents” to see them.
Arrows connect birth parents to their children.
Renounces the throne and vows to remain childless.
Marries Ambika and Ambalika. Dies without children.
Satyavati’s son from an earlier union; also the epic’s composer.
Bhishma and Vyasa are each a half-brother of Vichitravirya, through different parents. They are not blood brothers to each other.
Birth parentage and royal succession are different.
Vyasa fathers Dhritarashtra and Pandu to continue Vichitravirya’s royal line. Bhishma is their elder and guardian.
A sage’s curse means Pandu will die if he lies with his wives.
Kunti’s mantra lets her summon gods; she shares it with Madri.
Names beside the brothers identify their divine fathers. All five belong to Pandu’s royal household.
You learn this early in Part I
And then there is
Kunti had him by Surya, the sun god, before she married Pandu. A charioteer’s family raised him. That makes him the eldest half-brother of Yudhishthira, Bhima and Arjuna. He is not one of the five.
Buck tells you this. The Pandavas don’t know it.
By now Karna knows too. The Pandavas still don’t.
Karna knew before he died. The Pandavas still don’t.
Kunti tells her other sons only after Karna is dead.
Draupadi is married to all five brothers.
Bhima also has a wife from the forest.Bhima has Hidimbi; Arjuna also marries Ulupi, Chitrangada and Subhadra.
Her brother comes out of the same fire, and is another of Drupada’s children.
Hidimbi is a rakshasi Bhima meets in the forest after the fire.
Arjuna marries Krishna’s sister. Their son is Abhimanyu.
Krishna and his brother Balarama are Kunti’s nephews. That makes Krishna the Pandavas’ cousin.
Draupadi is one wife shared by five brothers. Hidimbi’s son counts as a Pandava son too.Her sons, Hidimbi’s son and Subhadra’s son all count as Pandava sons.
Chapter by chapter
What’s new by the end of each chapter. Chapters past your bookmark show only their number.
Character index
How are they connected?
Choose two people. Each link says whether it is birth, household or a personal tie.
At your bookmark
Common confusions
Bhima is not Bhishma.
Bhima is one of the five brothers, known for strength. Bhishma is the guardian elder, from their grandfathers’ generation.
Why two kinds of fatherhood?
The royal family counts the five as Pandu’s sons. Their birth stories name divine fathers. Likewise, Vyasa fathers heirs to continue Vichitravirya’s line. A working rule: read the five as Pandu’s sons whenever the court is talking about inheritance, and as the gods’ sons whenever the story explains their gifts.
Are they all Kurus?
Yes, both branches belong to the Kuru family. In the cousins’ rivalry, “Kauravas” means Dhritarashtra’s sons; “Pandavas” means the five sons of Pandu.
Kunti or Madri?
Kunti is the birth mother of Yudhishthira, Bhima and Arjuna. Madri is the twins’ birth mother. Kunti cares for all five after Pandu and Madri die.
Krishna or Krishnaa?
Krishna is the Yadava prince and the Pandavas’ cousin, and Arjuna’s closest friend. Some characters call Draupadi Krishnaa, “the dark one”. If a line seems to call Draupadi by Krishna’s name, that’s why.
One wife, five husbands?
Draupadi is married to all five brothers. Kunti tells her sons to share, and the family treats her word as binding. The brothers can also marry other women: Bhima has Hidimbi, Arjuna has Subhadra.
Two people called Uttara.
Prince Uttara is Virata’s son, who ends up driving Arjuna’s chariot. Princess Uttara is his sister, who marries Abhimanyu. Some editions mark her name Uttarā.
Whose side is Shalya on?
He is the twins’ uncle, but Duryodhana wins his support first with a feast.
Aswatthaman, the man or the elephant?
Both. Bhima kills an elephant with the same name as Drona’s son so that Yudhishthira can say “Aswatthaman is dead” without telling a flat lie. Drona’s son is still alive.
Some names look different elsewhere.
Shantanu may appear as Santanu. The Aswins may appear as the Ashwins. Duhsasana may appear as Duhshasana or Dushasana, and Aswatthaman as Ashwatthaman. Draupadi may appear as Panchali. Shalya may appear as Salya. Shikhandi may appear as Sikhandin. The character search recognises these spellings for the people on the page.
Edition, sources & spoiler boundary
This companion follows William Buck’s retelling, all twenty chapters. Your bookmark sets the boundary. The stops fall at the end of each chapter, with one extra stop partway through chapter 3. Part III is recapped as one block. Page numbers vary by edition.
Chapter boundaries follow Buck’s table of contents. If it wasn’t clear which chapter an episode falls in, I put it at the later stop, so a recap can arrive a chapter late but never a chapter early.
I checked the order of disclosures against Laura Gibbs’ University of Oklahoma course guide, the family links against K. M. Ganguli’s public-domain Adi Parva, and the order of later events against the rest of his translation. If retellings differ, the guide sticks to Buck’s version.
The external sources below contain later plot. You don’t need to open them to use this guide.