named Vyasa, the
author of this poem.

By the Rajah the fishermaid now had two sons, one of whom was slain at
the end of a three years' fight, while the other began his reign under
the wise regency of Bhishma. When it was time for his royal
step-brother to marry, Bhishma sent him to a Bride's Choice
(Swayamvara), where three lovely princesses were to be awarded to the
victor. Without waiting to win them fairly, the young prince kidnapped
all three, and, when the disappointed suitors pursued him, Bhishma
held them at bay by shooting ten thousand arrows at once, and thus
enabled his step-brother and brides to escape.

Although thus provided with three royal wives, our prince was soon
deserted by one of them and was never fortunate enough to have
children by the two others. After he had died, custom required that
his nearest kinsman should raise issue for him, so,--owing to
Bhishma's vow,--Vyasa, who was fabulously ugly, undertook to visit the
two widows. One of them, catching a glimpse of him, bore him a blind
son (Dhritarashtra), while the other was so frightened that she bore a
son of such pale complexion that he was known as Pandu, the White.

Neither of these youths being deemed perfect enough to represent
properly the royal race, Vyasa announced he would pay the widows
another visit, but this time they hired a slave to take their place,
so it was she who brought into the world Vidura, God of Justice.
Because one prince was blind and the other the offspring of a slave,
the third was set upon his throne by his uncle Bhishma, who in due
time provided him with two lovely wives.

With these the monarch withdrew to the Himalayas to spend his
honeymoon, and while there proved unfortunate enough to wound a couple
of deer who were hermits in disguise. In dying they predicted he would
perish in the arms of one of his wives, whereupon Pandu decided to
refrain from all intercourse with them, graciously allowing them
instead to bear him five sons by five different gods. These youth,
known in the poem as the sons of Pandu, the Pandavs (or the Pandavas),
are the main heroes of India. As a prediction made by an ascetic was
bound to come true, the king, momentarily forgetting the baleful
curse, died in the embrace of his second wife, who, in token of grief,
was burned with his remains, this being the earliest mention of a
suttee.

Meantime the blind prince had married a lady to whom a famous ascetic
had promised she should be