THE KURU PARIVAAR- I

Though the Pandavas and Kauravas rein the entire storyline of Mahabharata, the epic is incomplete without the knowledge of their ancestors. So as we go forth, in the interest of time I have given short descriptions about everybody but we will go in depth into the relatively important stories.

It started long long ago, so long ago with the ultimate creator himself- Brahma.  Brahma’s descendant was Atri:

Atri-He is also the Manasa Putra and was born from the mind of Lord Brahma (from his eyes) to assist Lord Brahma in the act of creation. When the sons of Brahma were destroyed by a curse of Shiva, Atri was born again from the flames of a sacrifice performed by Brahma. His wife in both manifesations was Anasuya.

Chandra-In Hinduism, Chandra is also identified with theVedic lunar deity Soma .  Chandra is described as young, beautiful, fair; two-armed and having in his hands a club and a lotus He rides his  across the sky every night, pulled by ten white horses or an antelope.

Once Chandra organized a Rajsuya Yagya and received great powers. Afterwards blinded by his powers, Chandra kidnapped Tara, the wife of Brihaspati. Even his grandfather Brahma tried to dissuade him from committing such a grave crime but Chandra was not to listen to anybody. Because of his hostility with Brihaspati, the teacher of the demons Shukra was also assisting Chandra. At that moment of need, only Rudra came forward to help Brihaspati. A fierce battle followed between Chandra and Rudra. The gods were helping Brihaspati while because of Shukra, the demons fought from the side of Chandra. Soon the battle assumed the proportion of a war that perplexed the entire world. At last, Lord Vishnu mediated to end the battle and helped Brihaspati to get his wife back. By that time Tara had conceived a child. Seeing her condition Brihaspati instigated Tara to abort the baby. Tara aborted the baby amidst some shrubs but it did not die. Instead, his brilliance dulled even the radiance of the gods.

The baby was so beautiful that both Brihaspati and Chandra were eager to accept him. To settle the matter, Brahma asked Tara about the paternity of the child. Feeling shy, Tara revealed that Chandra was the father of the child. Then Brahma himself adopted the child and named him as Buddha.

Budha-In the Hindu mythology, Budha is the name for the planet Mercury, a son of Chandra with Tara or Rohini. He is also the god of merchandise and protector of merchants.

He is represented as being mild, eloquent, and having a greenish complexion. He is represented holding a scimitar, a club and a shield, riding a winged. In other illustrations, he holds a scepter and lotus and rides a carpet or an eagle or a chariot drawn by lions.
Budha married Ila, the daughter of Vaivasvata Manu, and fathered a son, Pururava .

Pururava- In the Hindu religion there are many Gods and Goddesses. In order to teach Hindu followers about these deities, stories are used; similar to the parables familiar to Christians and many other faiths. Often in Hindu parables, Gods interact with humans and the stories contain themes, conflicts and ultimately resolutions to which Hindu practitioners may empathize and relate to everyday life in the form of life lessons. This is one such parable.

Pururava was very magnanimous and handsome. Once when the apsara Urvashi was returning to heaven just before dawn with the other apsaras, she was abducted by a demon. Pururava saw this and chased the demon on his chariot and freed Urvashi from his clutches. The brief period their bodies touched changed their lives forever. For the first time Urvasi experienced the warm flesh of a mortal, for the first time she heard blood pounding in veins and for the first time she heard the inhalation and exhalation of breath. Pururavas had seen Urvashi in Indra’s court before and to actually be close to the most beautiful woman in heaven exhilarated him. Pururava left Urvashi with her friends but when they parted each was madly in love with the other but unsure whether the love was being reciprocated.

Urvashi was a female deity in a human man’s world and in keeping with the tradition of the times expected the man to make the first move. Pururavas on the other hand, feared rejection because he did not expect the pride of heaven to come and live with a mortal, and hence did not approach Urvashi. Urvashi was giving a dance performance in which she was portraying Vishnu’s consort, Lakshmi. Her concentration was with Pururavas and she called out her lover’s name instead of saying “Vishnu”. Her teacher, the sage Bharat, got offended and cursed Urvashi. “You will get to live with the person you are thinking about,” he said, “And you will also give birth to his son. But you will have to choose between the father and son, because the day they see each other you will have to leave them both and return to heaven.”

Since then Pururava began to live with Urvashi. Together they enjoyed their physical intimacy for sixty thousand years. Their love grew so much that even Urvashi forgot those heavenly comforts that she used to enjoy once. Because of her absence, even the heaven appeared more dreaded than hell.

He decided to live with Urvashi in the forest of Gandhmadan. He arranged for all princely comforts there as also for running the affairs of state. They spent the time in love, in discourse; Urvashi sang and danced for Pururavas; the king was content to have her with him. For Urvashi this was a unique opportunity to live with mortals and to experience their joys and sufferings, while Pururavas reveled in the fact that the pride of heaven and Indra's favourite was his and his alone.

By now everyone, including Aushiniri had accepted Urvashi as the king's consort. There was no need for them to stay at Gandhmadan. The two went to the capital city of their kingdom and continued to enjoy each other's company as before. In all Urvashi and Pururava spent sixteen years together. It had so happened that Urvashi had desired to bear a child, so without Pururavas' knowledge she had conceived and given birth to his son. The reason for the secrecy lay in the curse sage Bharat had given Urvashi many years earlier. The lover in Urvashi had yet not been satisfied so she had left the newborn child in sage Chyavan's hermitage in the care of his wife Satyavati.

Sage Chyavan explained everything to the astounded king. The time had come for Ayu to meet Pururavas, but unfortunately the same time necessitated the departure of Urvashi. Pururava crowned Ayu as King and left for Gandhmadan, where he had spent memorable seasons with the apsara. But the story does not end here. The Demons attacked Heaven and with Pururava's help the Gods succeeded in driving them away. In return Indra allowed Urvashi to go back to Gandhmadan where she spent many more years with Pururava and bore him many more sons.

Ayu- He was a  Chandravanshi king. He was eldest son of Puraravaand father of Nahusha.King Ayu's wife's name was Indumathi. Both were very happy to have a son. But the same night a maid lifted the sleeping child and took him in the sky. In fact she was not a maid, she was the Asura Hund. Hund brought him to his palace and handed over to his wife to cook a delicious dish for him. The cook could not kill the child and she gave him to a man who took him away and left him on the doorstep of Sage Vasishta. It was morning and Sage Vasishta was going for his morning chores that he saw a newborn child on his doorstep; he picked him in his arms and named him Nahusha.

Nahusha- He was a well-known king who was the son of Ayu, the eldest son of Pururavas. . He married Viraja, the daughter of the Pitras. They had six or seven sons, according to different Puranas. His eldest son Yati became a muni (ascetic). He was succeeded by his second son Yayati.

Yayati- Yayati was a Puranic king and the son of King Nahusha and his wife Viraja. He was one of the ancestors of Pandavas.

Devayani was the daughter of Sage Shukracharya, the guru of all Asuras, she had been cursed by sage Kacha that she would not marry another Brahmana. Sage Shukra was living in his palace. At that time the Asura king was Vrushaparva, whose daughter Sharmishta was close friend of Devayani.

One day, as Devayani and Sharmishtha along with the hoard of servants were amusing themselves in a park, King Yayati happened to pass by. Devayani had been secretly in love with Yayati, as he had once rescued her from a dry well. Devayani and Sharmishtha introduced themselves to him, and Devayani confessed to being in love with him and asked him to marry her.

Yayati said, "Unless your father gives you to me in marriage I will not accept you as my wife." Shukracharya gave in to his daughter's request, and agreed to give her away in marriage to King Yayati. As dowry, he gave away Sharmishtha. He however warned Yayati that he should never let Sharmishtha share his bed.

Sharmishtha was given a place to live in a shaded glade called Ashok Vatika. One day Yayati happened to pass by Ashok Vatika where Sharmishtha lived. Seeing him, Sharmishtha confessed that she too was in love with the king, and wanted him to marry her. She told him that she belonged to a royal family, and Yayati could marry her. Yayati agreed and they wed in secret. They continued to meet and hid the fact from Devayani that they were married. Yayati had two sons from Devayani, Yadu and Turvasu. Yayati also had three sons from Sharmishtha, Druhyu, Anu and Puru.

When Devayani came to know about the relationship of Yayati and Sharmishtha and their three sons, she felt shocked and betrayed. Devayani went away to her father Shukracharya, who displeased with the king, cursed that he would lose his youth, and become an old man immediately.

As soon as Shukracharya uttered his curse, Yayati became an old man. Shukracharya also said that his curse once uttered, could not be taken back, and added that the only concession he could give was that if Yayati wanted, he could give his old age to someone, and take his youth from him. Yayati was relieved at the reprieve he was given, and was confident that his sons would willingly exchange their youth with him. Yayati requested all his five sons one by one to give their youth to him to enjoy the worldly happiness. All the sons, except Puru accepted his demand. So Yayati took the youth of Puru. Later on, Puru became the successor of King Yayati.

According to the story, Yayati enjoyed the sensual pleasures for a "thousand years" and later realized the futility and said, "Know this for certain, not all the food, wealth and women of the world can appease the lust of a single man of uncontrolled senses. Craving for sense-pleasures is not removed but aggravated by indulgence even as ghee poured into fire increases it....One who aspires for peace and happiness should instantly renounce craving and seek that which neither grows old, nor ceases even when the body ages."Yayati then gave back the youth to Puru, receiving his old age in return. He renounced the world, and retired into a forest and according to the story, attained the lord through his spiritual practices.

Yadu gave rise to Yadu vansha, and one of his descendants as Krishna.

Puru, the youngest son succeeded the Yayati and inherited his kingdom in the Gangatic plain. He in turn gave rise to Puru Vansha .

Next Up: Dushyanta-Shakuntala Vruthanta