7.The birth of devavrat(later known as bhishma)

There was a king named Mahabhisha born in ikshvaku dynasty. Once when celestials assembled for some sacrifice Ganga in her human form also came where the wind displaced her clothes upon which everyone else bent down their heads but mahabhisha kept staring upon which he was cursed that he would be reborn onto the earth with ganga as his wife who would keep hurting him until his wrath be provoked by her deeds.This was mahabhisha who took birth as Shantanu and was later married to ganga .When ganga was returning to her abode she saw the vasus to be very sad and asked for the reson upon which they told that they have been cursed by vashishtha also known as apava for stealing the celestial cow nandini from his place ,to be born on the earth . When pleaded by them he said that although 7 of  you would get to leave the earth as soon as you are born the 8th one named dyu who stole the cow when asked to do so by his wife would have to remain on the earth for a long time and he would not be able to enjoy the companionship of any lady while being on earth.They hence asked ganga to be their mother as they did not want to be born of any normal human being of which ganga agreed and went away.Time passed by and once ganga saw a king practicing his penance on her banks.She was spellbound by his smartness and she went to him and sat onto his right thigh asking him to marry her.Thsi was king pratipa of great bharat dynasty.The king said that as you sit on my right thigh whigh is meant only for daughter and in laws i cannot marry you as it is the left thigh meant for wives but i assure you that you would be married with my son.Ganga then asked for a boon that his son would not interfere in anything she did and the king agreed.As the time passed by shantanu was born as son of pratipa and as the time came his father told him the whole story . Once when shantanu was wandering on the coast of ganga he saw ganga of utter beauty and asked for her hand onto which she repeated the same promise which she asked for from his father and shantanu agreed.As the time passed by ganga gave birth to 8 sons out of which 7 were thrown by her in the flow of herself and they ll drowned and died but the 8th was protected by shantanu when he asked ganga the reason for killing her own sons and then ganga told him the story which i wrote just now.But as shantanu had broken his promise of not interfering in anything done by her she left him along with her son with a promise that he would be returned at an pt time.Years later when shantanu was once wandering near the banks of ganga he saw that the flow had been stopped by a handsome boy who was later introduced to him by ganga as his own son devavrat or gangeya,She gave shantanu his son and went away telling that the boy was taught the vedas by vashishtha himself and the art of war by great warrior parshuram.The king declared him the crowned prince.

6.FOUNDATION OF DYNASTY

Yayati was one of the ancestors of pandavas who had asur's guru shukrachrya's daughter devayani as his wife.The story of devayani goes as follows-There were frequent wars between asurs(devils) and devtas(gods) and since the devils had shukracharya as their teacher who knew the sanjivani mantra of healing the dead from death he gave the devils their lives back . Since the devtas were frustrated they asked kacha,the on of their guru vrihaspati to go and learn the mantra from him .They said that as he was young and smard he could be highly regarded by his daughter devyani and it would be easier for him than anyone else so he became desiple of shukra .But as the devils came to know about it they slew him for many times and devyani being impressed by him always lamented and asked his father to bring him back to life.The devils frustrated by this once killed him , burnt him to ashes and mixed it in the wine of shukra when he was out of his senses being drunk.When devyani kept lamenting shukra told the mantra ti kacha and asked him to make him alive once he is given life by shukra and hence coming out of his stomach tearing it and the same happened but when asked by devyani to marry her he said that as he came out of her fathers stomach she becomes his sister and hence he can't marry her.Angry on listening this she cursed him that everything he learned of her father would be of no use to him.Dejected by this he in return cursed her that she would not be married with a brahman .Some time passed by and once when she was taking bath by the river side her clothes got mingled with those of sharmishtha the daughter of devil king vrishparva and while fighting over the issue sharmishtha uttered some illicit language against shukra and pushed her into a well . King yayati while passing cured her from the well.Agitated by the behavior of sharmishtha she told her father that she would not live in such a kingdom . Vrishparva afraid of losing shukra asked devyani to ask for something to pacify her and she asked for her daughter and her 1000 maids to be her maid thereafter and so it happened . Once when yayati was passing by devyani proposed him but he said that he could not accept her until she was bestowed to him by her father. Shukra when asked happily arranged the marriage and said that shrmishtha shall although be taken care but should never be taken to bed by him. As the time passed devyani gave birth to 2 sons namely yadu and turvasu .Once when yayati was dwelling into the palace of shrmishtha , shrmishtha said to him that since he was the husband of her friend she also considers her as her husband as a friend's husband may be considered as one's own husband (????)and as it is my season to bear child please bestow upon me a child. Yayati having no answer did so and she gave birth to 3 sons viz. druhyu,aru and puru . When devyani came to know about it , dejected she went to her father who cursed the king to become old with wrinkles just then . When reasoned the sage felt pity and said that this old age could be exchanged for youth with any of your children. When he asked his children all of them refused and were cursed by him except puru.He was hence declared by king his heir and the king enjoyed the youth for 1000 years and then realised that the hunger for these worldly things doesn't end and gave puru back his youth and himself went to forest to live life of a sage.Puru hence remained the king for long time and the dynasty was named after him.Yayati was one of the ancestors of dushmanta the father of bharat.Kuruvansha is so called due to one of the kings of the bharat dynasty named kuru , the son  of king samavarna and tapti."Daksha was father of  Aditi, and Aditi the mother of Vivaswat, and Vivaswat the father of Manu, and Manu the father of  Ha and Ha begat Pururavas. And Pururavas begat Ayus, and Ayus begat Nahusha, and Nahusha begat Yayati. And Yayati had two wives, viz., Devayani, the daughter of Usanas, and Sarmishtha the daughter of Vrishaparvan.Bharat had 9 sons of his 3 wives all not fit to be the kings and were slayed by their mothers . He then performed a yajna and got as a result a son named bhumanyu who was made the king.In this race was born the king shantanu whose story follows.

5.BIRTH OF BHARAT

It is said that India's original name bhaarat comes from the name of this ruler whos name was bharat. His story Starts from the interesting story of birth of his mother SHAKUNTALA .There was a royal sage named vishwamitra who was busy in his austerities and since he was becoming very powerful with the boons he received Indra became afraid and asked one of the apsras named menka who was very beautiful to go and disturb him so that he might be ddistracted of his penance . Menka afraid of the anger of the sage said that the sage might burn her with anger so she asked indra to ask ask marut the god of wind to rob her of her clothes when she is playing with the sage and so he did .When the sage saw her in this state he was in love with her and spent a long time with her.Then she gave birth to shakuntala who was left near river malini who was nurtured by sage kanva .When king dushmanta one of the greatest of the time went to the forest for hunting and on the way went to meet sage kanva who was not there at his place he saw shakuntala ask asked her to marry him . Although she said that he should wait for the sage to come but the king insisted them to have Gandharva marriage(a type of hidden marriage which was valid for kshatrias, the warrior class).They married accordingly . Then dushmanta left her and said that he would be sending people to take him to the kingdom with great pomp and show as she was the royal mistress and as asked by shakuntala he granted her the boon that her son would be the next king . Bharat was born of this union but since the king did not send anyone to take shakuntala she was sent by sage kanva to the king with some of the acquaintances where the king rejected to recognise her.Feeling insulted she returned back to kanva cursing the king but as she retreated there was a voice from the sky of no visible form describing a child  as a part of the father himself taking the birth from his wife and asked the king to call his kin back and the same was done by the king .He pacified shakuntala by saying that as he thought that his subjects would have suspected her purity and would have believed that the king accepted her due to some pressure therefore he did not accept her then but wanted to accept her now.By the time passed bharat bacame a great ruler and today's India is said to be named after him.

4.THE BIRTH OF CELESTIALS AND THEIR INCARNATIONS

Continuing the story vaisampayana tells Janamejaya about the birth of the celestial objects of which very few are described here.The question that occurs is that if Parshuram cleared the earth of the kshatrias(warrior class) 21 times, then how could the kshatrias be existing afterwards.according to him once there were no kshatrias left ,their wives went to the sages during their menstrual periods in order to seek for the children although this was totally free of any sort of lust.As the time passed on, when the sons of danu and diti started to make the earth burdened by their evil deeds the devatas were asked to incarnate onto the earth.It is said that brahma had 6 spiritual sons viz. Marichi, Atri,Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha and Kratu . Kashyap was the son of marichi and these creatures are said to be of him.On the other hand Daksha one of the prajapatis had 1000 sons and 50  daughters among which he married 13 to Kashyapa, all the creatures on the earth (animals,birds,reptiles etc. and all th celestials including sun)are sons of kashyapa .Yama ,the lord of death and MANU were the sons of sun and yamuna his daughter.Manu the son of sun is known to be the parent of human being and hence human beings are also known as manav (the descendants of manu).Abhimanyu was incarnation of Varchas,the son of the moon who said that as he could not part from his son for long time he should come back early to him once his work on earth is over leaving the mark of his bravery on the earth by fighting the greatet warriors on the earth in the absence of arjun(incarnation of nara) and vasudeva (incarnation of vishnu).So he was dead at the age of 16.Rukmini the wife of vasudeva was incarnation of lakshmi and other 16000 apsaras that incarnated on the earth by indra's order became the wives of vasudeva.Draupadi was incarnation of sachi(the queen of celestials).Kunti and madri the mothers of pandavas were incarnations of siddhi and dhriti respectively.There are descriptions of the birth of almost all celestial bodies and their incarnations in the real text.

3.BIRTH OF SATYAVATI,THE MOTHER OF VYASA

The king of chedi named UPARICHARYA also known as vasu was very wise ruler .As a result of his austerities was given by indra a garland of unfading lotuses and a bamboo pole which was later used by the king during the worship of indra,the pole being decked by a golden piece of cloth(this might be the reason for such a  practice we follow now) as indra blessed the king that anyone using such a festivity would be blessed by me.In his kingdom was a river named Suktimati which was once attacked by a mountain named kolahala and was saved by the king but the mountain let its 2 children a boy who was made a general and a girl named girika which was married by the king (i dont know how?). When the king was about to "meet" his wife his pitris(ancestors) asked him to slay a deer for their shraddha(an offering to the ancestors). But the atmosphere being so seductive during such a season the king could not think of anything else but the beauty of his wife.He asked a hawk to carry his semen (?) to his wife .Due to fight between this and another hawk it fell into the sea and was taken by a apsara who was in the form of a fish being cursed by brahma.This fish when caught had one male and one female child in her womb . When taken to king Vasu also called uparichara he took the boy   who became famous monarch named matsya and the girl was given to the fisherman who had a smell like fish and she was named SATYAVATI . She was of great beauty and when sage Parashar saw her he asked her to embrace him . Satyavati being shy and afraid said to the sage that she was a virgin then sage gave her a boon that she would remain so even after embracing him(i dont know how?) and created a fog so that no one could see them and she was granted by the sage the boon of smelling sweetly that she could be smelled from distance of yojan(ancient unit of length) hence got names like gandhavati, yojanagandha etc.  . Hence was born vyasa . His real name was krishna-dwaipayana (krishna denoting his color) and the later part as he was born on a dweep(island).He was named ved vyasa as he arranged the vedas (vyasa means arranger). 

2.The begining

As SAUTI , later whose narration came to be  known to be called as mahabharat  (the actual work of vyas was named as bharat) had just returned from the snake sacrifice of king JANAMEJAYA the son of Parikshit , he was asked by the sages who had just returned from the 12 years of sacrifice organised by saunaka to narrate the whole story of the epic bharata as he heard it from the disciple of sage vyasa , vasampayana, he started to narrate  the great epic as he had heard it . On being asked the reason of the snake sacrifice being organised by the king he told them how the father of the king  parikshit lost his life being bitten by a gigantic serpent named takshaka .Although his father being a very wise man had been cursed by a young sage (sringin) ,the son of a sage who had been insulted by  the king while observing the wow of silence he did not answer to the king and the king placed a dead serpent onto his shoulder.Outraged by the insult that the king did to his father sringin cursed parikshit that as he insulted his father by placing a dead serpent so he would be bitten by the serpent .When his father came to know about his son cursing the king he told him that being a sage he should keep his cool but as he could not take his curse back so the sage sent his disciple to the king to inform the king about the curse but everything did by the king to save himself was ruined . As Janamejaya considered takshak to be the main cause of his father's death he organised the snake sacrifice which was later stopped by the son of sage Jaratkaru who had a wife of same name as he had who was the sister of the king of serpents named vasuki , ASTIKA . And when asked to ask for a boon for saving the serpents race he said whomsoever takes my name or shall hear this story of me shall not be bitten by snakes and he was granted the boon.The main reason behind the sacrifice of the serpents was actually the curse that they got from their mother Kadru who was displeased by them by not obeying her that they would all die during the great snake sacrifice done by king Janamejaya and as Bramha told that some of them would be cured of this curse only by the son of sage Jaratkaru who would have the same wife of his own name i.e astika. The other stories which come in between are the stories of birth of GARUNA the mightiest of all the birds which is also the vehicle of lord Vishnu and his brother aruna . There comes also the story of some of the sages like aruni,upamanyu,veda etc . But we rush through them directly to the story of mahabharat. This story is actually recited by Vaisampayana on being ordered to do so by his master ved vyasa to parikshit's son Janamejaya.

1.VED VYAS

There is no story of the great epic MAHABHARAT without knowing about its creator sage "VED VYAS", the son of Satyavati and one of the most important characters of Mahabharat himself .Satyavati was also the step mother of devavrat or so called "BHISHMA" one of the most famous character of mahabharat , the wife of Shantanu.He is also called as Krishna dvaipayana.Guru purnima is a festival devoted to him Ved vyasa is said to have recited the epic in a single go and was written by Hindu god lord GANESH who was ready to pen it down only if it was recited in a single go. It took him 3 long years to narrate this whole story during which Ganesh raised only to purify hiself during the recitation.It is also believed that along with the mahabharat sage VYASA also recited all 18 PURANAS and all the UPANISHADS known to the world. He is also believed to have divided one single ved into 4 different vedas known to the world now i.e RIG VEDA , SAM VEDA, YAJUR VEDA AND ATHARVA VEDA for their better understanding according to subject it deals with.He was also the biological father of Pandu,the father of pandavas;dhritarashtra,the father of kauravas and wise Vidur,who later became the minister at the royal court of kuru dynasty,the reason being the death of Vichitra-virya leaving the dynasty without a heir.He was asked by his mother to do so as there was no one to ascend the throne after his death and bhishma refusing to do so due to his wow of being brahmachari (unmarried) throughout his life .The whole story being written here is whatever i understand from the reading of the great epic's English translation and hence i would like to hear from the readers anything not up to the mark.This is the story which was narrated by great sage and storyteller Ugrasrava also called as SAUTI who heard it directly from VAISAMPAYANA who was narrating it to JANAMEJAYA, the son of PARIKSHIT,grandson of ABHIMANYU and great grandson of ARJUNA .
You may get more information (if it is available) here
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyasa