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The Mahabharata is the biggest epic in the world. The epic tells the events that led to the gory eighteen-day war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. This war nearly annihilated the entire warrior class that existed in those times.

The Pandavas and the Kauravas were both cousins, and the eighteen-day war was fought for the land of the Kingdom of Hastinapur.

Originally, the kingdom of Hastinapur belonged to Bheeshma, the son of Shantanu and Ganga.

Ganga was Shantanu's first wife.

However, Bheeshma did not sit on the throne of Hastinapur. The throne of Hastinapur passed on to the lineage of Shantanu's second wife, Satyavathi.

In Satyavathi's lineage, came two princes—Dhirdharashtra and Pandu.

Dhirdharashtra was the older brother, but he was born blind.

So the throne passed on to the younger Pandu.

However, just as Hastinapur's misfortune would have it, Pandu was cursed by a sage to be childless his entire life.

Having realized that he could not have any children who would rule Hastinapur after him, Pandu gave up the throne of Hastinapur and went to live in the forests with his two wives—Kunti and Madri.

The throne went back to Dhirdharashtra, who ruled Hastinapur, though most of the power still resided in Bheeshma's hands.

In the forests, Pandu came to know that his wife Kunti knew of a powerful mantra.

This mantra could bind a Deva and make sure that the Deva gave the person knowing the mantra, Kunti, in this case, a child bearing the characteristics of the Deva.

Pandu asked Kunti to use this mantra and have children for herself.

Kunti first invoked Dharma, the Deva of Justice, and through Dharma, Kunti had a son named Yudhishtara.

After that, with further encouragement from Pandu, Kunti invoked Vayu, the Deva of the Wind, and had Bheema. Then finally Kunti invoked Indra, the king of the Devas himself, and Kunti had another son by the name of Arjuna.

Though Kunti did not teach her co-wife the mantra, Kunti helped Madri have children by helping Madri invoke any Deva of her choice.

Madri invoked the twin Ashwin Devas, the physicians of the Devas. So Madri became mother to the twins—Nakula and Sahadeva.

Pandu acknowledged his paternity over the five boys—Yudhishtara, Bheema, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva—and these five came to be known as the five Pandavas.

Meanwhile, back in Hastinapur, Dhirdharashtra had a hundred sons, the eldest of whom was Duryodhana.

These sons of Dhirdharashtra all belonged to the lineage of King Kuru, so they were all called the Kauravas.

Duryodhana was born a year after the birth of Yudhishtara.

After the death of Pandu and Madri, Kunti brought the five sons of Pandu back to Hastinapur.

Right from their youth, Duryodhana was openly hostile to the Pandavas.

There were times when Duryodhana tried to kill his cousins too.

During one such time, Duryodhana attempted to kill the Pandavas and their mother by burning them in a palace made of lac.

With the help of the elders of Hastinapur, Kunti and the five Pandavas constructed an underground tunnel from the palace of lac and were able to escape Duryodhana's designs.

However, this time, Kunti and the Pandavas realized that Duryodhana was a very dangerous opponent because he had not hesitated to kill all of them in this manner.

Kunti and the Pandavas had no one powerful enough to back them up, so they decided to stay undercover after escaping the burning of the lac palace.

So the rest of Bharatavarsha and Hastinapur believed that the Pandavas were dead and mourned their loss.

Other than a few people of the royal family, no one knew the truth, and Kunti and her sons lived in disguise, living among the common people of the kingdom, moving from one place to another, drawing no attention to themselves.