GENEALOGY ONE
The Older Generations
Simplified lines of descent for important characters spanning nine generations preceding the Pandavas and Kauravas, with characters only in six generations shown selectively. Each dotted line represents a marriage or sexual relationship; each continuous line descends from biological parents to offspring. More than one dotted line leading from or to a name indicates more than one relationship for that person; multiple relationships may be serial or simultaneous.
Parashara and Satyavati engender Vyasa before Satyavati becomes Shantanu’s queen and engenders Chitrangada (not shown) and Vichitravirya with the latter; Shantanu engenders Bhishma with Ganga before marrying Satyavati. Thus, both Bhishma and Vyasa, in that chronological order, are Vichitravirya’s elder half-brothers from different parents. Vichitravirya marries two sisters, Ambika and Ambalika, but dies without producing children. Satyavati, his mother and queen, then invokes the “law of levirate” to continue the royal line. Bhishma cannot participate because he has taken a vow of celibacy; so Vyasa steps in, and fathers Dhritarashtra upon the elder widow, Ambika, and Pandu upon the younger, Ambalika. Ancient Hindu levirate broadly resembles biblical levirate, as in Deuteronomy 25.
GENEALOGY TWO
The Younger Generations
Lines of descent for select characters in six generations, with two generations preceding and three generations succeeding the Pandavas and Kauravas. Each dotted line represents a marriage or sexual relationship; each solid line connects biological parents to offspring. More than one dotted line leading from or to a name indicates more than one relationship for that person; multiple relationships may be serial or simultaneous.
Dhritarashtra is in a monogamous marriage with Gandhari, whereas Pandu is in a bigamous marriage with Kunti (elder wife) and Madri; both families, however, have difficulty procreating. Gandhari, in a single supernatural pregnancy, conceives and gives birth to 101 children, of whom Duryodhana is chronologically the first. Kunti invokes three gods to father three biological sons, whereas Madri invokes twin gods to produce two; after Pandu’s and Madri’s deaths, Kunti raises the Pandavas as a widow.
Draupadi is married polyandrously to all five Pandavas simultaneously. In the course of that marriage, Bhima also marries the metamorphosing female demon Hidinbaa; with her, he fathers Ghatotkacha, who is raised in the Pandava household. While in the polyandrous marriage with Draupadi, Arjuna also polygamously marries and has children with other women (not all shown). Among the latter is Subhadra, Krishna’s biological sister, with whom Arjuna has Abhimanyu. When the young Abhimanyu is killed in the war at Kurukshetra, his bride Uttaraa is pregnant with Parikshit, who inherits the Pandava kingdom later, and passes it on to his own biological son, Janamejaya.