Bhishma and Pandu

Bhishma raises the three princes as his own, training them to excellence. But when the time comes to choose a king, Dhritarashtra's blindness and Vidura's birth bar them from the throne, leaving Pandu to be installed as lord of the earth.

Pandu, a Kuru prince, secures two powerful marriages—to Kunti and Madri—and then turns his ambition outward. He launches a military campaign across the eastern kingdoms, crushing proud kings, seizing their wealth, and forcing them to acknowledge Kuru supremacy. He returns to a hero's welcome, his chariots groaning with tribute, having revived the faded glory of his lineage.

Pandu returns from his conquests laden with the wealth of defeated kings. Acting on his elder brother's command, he must now distribute the spoils, a delicate task that will define the family's harmony and future.

With Pandu and Madri dead in the forest, Dhritarashtra orders a royal funeral from the capital. Vidura and Bhishma lead a vast, sorrowful procession to the Ganga, where the king and his wife are cremated with full honors, leaving their five young sons to begin twelve days of public mourning.