The Mahabharataमहाभारत
Eighteen books and something near a hundred thousand verses — the longest poem anyone has written, and a family quarrel. This section reads it as a text, with the parva and section given for every claim.
One source, stated up front
Everything here comes from the Vyasa Mahabharata in Kisari Mohan Ganguli’s translation — the only complete English rendering in the public domain — and from nothing else. Every name in the family tree carries its parva and section, so any of it can be checked.
Ganguli translates the vulgate, the Calcutta and Bombay editions, not the Poona critical edition. The two divide their sections differently, so a number here will not always land in the same place in a critical-edition text such as Debroy’s. That is worth knowing before you go looking.
The family tree
Kauravas and Pandavas are not two families — Dhritarashtra and Pandu are brothers. One tree, forking at the bottom.
The House of Kuru
Forty generations to a war between cousins
The Kauravas and the Pandavas are not two families. Dhritarashtra and Pandu are brothers, so both "sides" of the war share every generation back to Manu and separate only at the very bottom of the tree — which is the tragedy the epic is about. What follows is that single descent as Ganguli’s Mahabharata gives it: the lunar line to Yayati, the Paurava kings from Puru to Shantanu, and then the four generations in which almost nobody is fathered by the man the genealogy lists as their father.
Open the tree →The traditional chronology
A separate page, and a different kind of claim from the tree — dates worked out by commentators from the Kaliyuga epoch rather than statements read in the text. It is labelled as such throughout.
The Traditional Chronology
Anchored to 3102 BCE
Every event placed by samvatsara, lunar month, tithi and nakshatra, from Karna’s birth to the Pandavas’ last journey — with Yudhishthira’s age at each, computed to the day.
Open the chronology →The eighteen parvas
- 01
Adi Parva
The book of the beginning — ancestry, births, the house of lac, Draupadi’s marriage
- 02
Sabha Parva
The assembly hall — Yudhishthira’s consecration, the dice game, Draupadi disrobed
- 03
Vana Parva
The forest — twelve years of exile, and the longest book of the eighteen
- 04
Virata Parva
The thirteenth year, spent in disguise at Virata’s court
- 05
Udyoga Parva
The effort — embassies, Krishna’s failed peace mission, both sides arming
- 06
Bhishma Parva
The first ten days of the war. Contains the Bhagavad Gita
- 07
Drona Parva
Drona commands; Abhimanyu is killed in the chakravyuha
- 08
Karna Parva
Karna commands, and is killed by Arjuna
- 09
Shalya Parva
The last day; Duryodhana falls to Bhima’s mace
- 10
Sauptika Parva
The night raid — Ashvatthama kills the sleeping camp
- 11
Stri Parva
The women — the widows on the battlefield, and Gandhari’s curse
- 12
Shanti Parva
Peace — Bhishma on his bed of arrows instructing Yudhishthira on kingship
- 13
Anushasana Parva
The instruction continued; Bhishma finally dies
- 14
Ashvamedhika Parva
The horse sacrifice, and Parikshit revived in the womb
- 15
Ashramavasika Parva
Dhritarashtra, Gandhari and Kunti retire to the forest and die there
- 16
Mausala Parva
The club — the Yadavas destroy themselves, and Krishna dies
- 17
Mahaprasthanika Parva
The great journey — the Pandavas walk north and fall one by one
- 18
Svargarohana Parva
The ascent to heaven, and the last reversal
What is not here yet
A text-cited narrative timeline — one where each event carries the parva and section it was read in, as the Ramayana timeline does. The chronology above is the traditional dating, which is a different thing. Ganguli’s sections carry no titles, so building a section-cited sequence means reading sections rather than harvesting an index; that work has not been done, and will not be guessed at.