King Dhritarashtra promises to give back their kingdom if they are not caught by the end of the exile. After being humiliated, they are exiled for thirteen years. Duryodana and his uncle, Shakuni, challenge the Pandavas to play a dice game where the Pandavas stake and lose their kingdom, wealth, themselves, and even temporarily their wife Draupadi (who is married to all five of the brothers). This does not please the Kauravas, and only adds to their dislike of the Pandavas. Meanwhile, King Dhritarastra learns of the plot to kill the Pandavas and, obviously displeased with the infighting, gifts them with half the kingdom. On the way, they marry Draupadi, the Princess of Panchala. When Duryodhana attempts to wipe out the Pandavas by tricking them into living in a palace made of lac and then burning it down, they escape and resolve to hide their identity till they are in safe territory. A rivalry quickly develops and Duryodhana, the oldest of the Kauravas, resolves to eliminate his cousins. The children of Dhritarashtra are called Kauravas and the children of Pandu are called Pandavas. Pandu then dies and his sons return to the kingdom.
Pandu eventually begets five sons by magical means- his wife Kunti has the power to call any God to father her children. As a result, he exiles himself to the forest and Dhritarashtra remains king. Pandu is cursed by a sage to die childless. He is wise, but since his mother is not a princess, he cannot rise beyond the rank of Prime Minister. Vyasa's visit also results in a son being born to a servant in the palace called Vidura. He marries Princess Kunti and a second woman named Madri. Dhritarashtra marries the queen of Gandhara, Gandhari, who brings along her brother, Chess Master Shakuni. Blind Prince Dhritarashtra is the older, but due to his blindness, the right to be an emperor is passed down to the second son, Prince Pandu. Two children result, which are deemed to be the sons of Vichitravirya. Ved-Vyasa is the illegitimate offspring of Satyavati and Parashara, a wandering sage, before her marriage to Shantanu, who was brought up by his father. Vichitravirya dies without an heir to the throne, and as Bhishma is unwilling to procreate, Satyavati calls on the sage Ved-Vyasa to impregnate the two widowed queens. She is unable to persuade Bhishma to wed her (and thus gain the respect that comes with marriage) and she takes up austerity, vowing to take her revenge on Bhishma, which she eventually does. Amba, the eldest, refuses, but her lover, Salva, the king of Saubha, refuses to take her back. Two of the princesses agree to wed his half brother. Later on, he abducts three princesses from the kingdom of Kasi during a Svayamvara (a marriage ceremony where the princess gets to choose her husband), for his half-brother (the son of Satyavati and Shantanu) Vichitravirya to marry. Devavrata is hence called Bhishma or the 'one with a terrible vow'. The Wise Prince Devavrata promises to step away from the throne and to remain celibate for the rest of his life so that Satyavati's children can inherit the throne. Shantanu finds his Second Love, a young fisherwoman named Satyavati whom he cannot marry due to Parental Marriage Veto. Ganga leaves and her son, Devavrata, becomes the apparent heir. Shantanu finally asks her to stop, only to find out that her sons are holy souls that, who, due to a crime of vandalism that they had committed, were forced to be born as mortal humans, and that by drowning them, she's letting them go back to the place where souls go after having transcended the cycle of rebirth. Ganga, however, appears to be a Jerkass, and drowns every single child that she bears as soon as they are born. The Epic starts with King Shantanu, the ancestor of the Kurus, falling in Love at First Sight with (unknown to him) River Goddess Ganga, whose condition for marrying him is that he should refrain from questioning her about anything that she does. Though based on earlier oral stories, recording did not begin until around 400 BCE, according to the most widely accepted theories about its composition.
It is popularly said to be written by the sage and Author Avatar "Ved-Vyasa" (meaning the Arranger of the Vedas).
The Mahabharata is a great Indian epic, part of Hindu Mythology and a Narrative Poem primarily about the Civil War between two factions, the Kauravas and the Pandavas of the Kuru dynasty who are Royal Cousins.