Mahabharata

• Mahabharata - Ancient Indian Epic
• Mahabharata is the longest poem in the world, 10x the length of Homer's Iliad and Odessey
• Mahabharata is composed by sage vyasa in 4th century BCE or earlier
• Mahabharata is about the kurukshetra war, an 18 days battle where the pandavas won
• Bhagavad Gita - a part of mahabharata, one of the most important scriptures of hinduism
• Gangavita is the beginning of mahabharata
• Yudhishtra - Eldest of Pandava brothers.  A bad series of dice games he plays lands him, his wife, and his brothers in exile for 13 years

  A) Ganga - First wife

  B) Shantanu - first king of Kuru

  C) Satyavati - 2nd wife
• Arjuna - Arjuna is dubbed the "wealth-winner." He is the greatest warrior of all the brothers, having been trained by his future military opponent Drona. Arjuna is a skilled archer and popular with women.
• Arjuna - the son of Kunti and Pandu, the hero of the Mahabharata
• Karna - Son of Kunti, technically the oldest of the Pandava brothers, but was raised by adoptive parents, and therefore does not consider himself part of the family. 
• Dhritarashtra - The blind king of Hastinapur who believes his blindness is a curse upon him, he gives birth to 100 sons who are demons incarnate. The most powerful of these sons is Duryodhana, who leads the 100 brothers into war against the Pandavas.
• Draupadi - The wife of the five Pandava brothers
• Duryodhana - The leader of 100 demon brothers who are all born of the blind king Dhritarashtra, Duryodhana is portrayed as living in flagrant violation of dharma. 
• Bhima - The strongest of the Pandavas
• Krishna - The god who assists the Pandavas throughout the story. His speech on dharma and action to Arjuna is known as the "Bhagavad Gita," and has been accepted as central to the Hindu tradition alongside the traditional Vedic texts.
• Drona is an 85-year-old man who fights like a 16-year-old. Even though he fights on behalf of Duryodhana, he shares a close bond with the Pandavas, having trained Arjuna as a warrior.
• Vyasa is the narrator of the entirety of the Mahabharata epic, dictating the tale to Ganesha
• Pandu's five sons Arjuna, Bhima, Yudhisthira, Nakula, and Sahadeva 
• Gandhari - wife of Dhritarashta
• Bhishma - 1st born of king shantanu, vowed celebacy
• Vichitravirya - died childless, son of king shantanu and satyavati
• Chitangada - killed in battle brother of vichitravirya
• Niyoga - birth of the princes, vyasa as their father
• Ambika - first wife of vichitravirya, mother of dhritarashta
• Ambalika - 2nd wife of vichitravirya, mother of pandu
• Parishrami - handmaiden of ambika, mother of Vidur (prime minister)
• Subhadra - wife of arjuna, sister of krishna
• Parikshit - final king of kuru, son of Abhimanyu