How Do I Tell These Stories?

Introducing Devavrat Bhishma. The eldest and most senior character of Mahabharat.The Pitamaha (Grandsire).A previous life, a karmic debt, and a river goddess with a broken heart to deliver. Shantanu's story starts before he's even born. It ends with a son who arrived carrying the heaviest cosmic score in the dynasty, and became its greatest legend.

He fact-checked the ring story. He wants to know if Yayati literally fell through the sky. And somewhere in the middle, I used the wrong acronym and invented a broadcasting network that doesn't exist. A bonus episode with an eleven-year-old who definitely doesn't listen to this podcast.

Chandravanshi King Yayati gets cursed with instant old age and asks his sons to take it for him. Four say no. One says yes without blinking. His descendants become the Kauravas, the Pandavas, and everything you've heard about the Mahabharata. The oldest son who said no and got cursed for it? His line gives us Krishna.

King Dushyanta proposes in a forest, leaves a ring as a promise, and forgets everything — thanks to a curse Shakuntala never heard about. She walks into his court, with their son and the truth, and the room laughs. Their son Bharat grows up to become a landmark figure in Indian mythology, giving India it’s name.

Urvashi had two conditions. Purarvas said yes before she finished. Pururvas and Urvashi — the most spectacular love story in the Lunar Dynasty, and probably the fastest anyone has ever lost everything over a goat.

A moon god elopes with a goddess. Heaven takes sides. And the baby born from the chaos makes a smart demand. Gods behaving badly, a cosmic war no one expected, and the origin story of the Mahabharata's most dramatic dynasty.

A dead snake prank curses King Parikshit. His son Janamejaya responds with a fire so large it pulls serpents from the sky. Then Astika walks up to the furious king and asks the one question nobody can answer. Oh, and this is just the prologue.