Dhritarashtra 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 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.

Pandu, having regained control over his senses, leaves his palace and royal life behind. He takes his two wives, Kunti and Madri, to live permanently in the wilderness, hunting and roaming the southern slopes of the Himalayas. Under Dhritarashtra's command, the forest-dwellers provide for them, and Pandu lives among them like a god.

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.