Family tree of characters in Mahabharata!!

Most Complicated Family Tree: Resolved!!! Well, Not really. I have just made an attempt to come up with the family tree of Kuru dynasty but whenever I feel that it's complete and correct now, I am proved wrong, something is always missing there. Uffff, This family tree is as complicated as the story itself.

Reason why I felt that I should come up with this family tree is that whenever there is a discussion on certain topic of Mahabharata, more often than not I see people(including me) getting confused with who is who in the epic. So why not map all the characters down for better understanding. 

Now that was one big task for me because unlike other royal families and stories where there is a king and a queen, they have talented son who rules the kingdom after them, Kuru family has got lots of twists and turns in the tale as to who is gonna be the next king which eventually lead to the war.

So going back in time long long ago, there used to be constant fight between Devas and Asuras for Swarga(Paradise). Everyone knows, the one with enough merits (Punya) gets into Swarga. So to maintain their merits and defeat Asuras, Devas had appointed Brihaspati, god of Jupiter, to perform yagna. Devas kept Brihaspati so occupied with yagna that his wife Tara felt so neglected by her husband that one fine day she eloped with a handsome hunk moon-god, Chandra.

When Brihaspati learned about his wife Tara, he became so furious that he threatened Indra, king of Devas that "I will resign from my roles and responsibilities of performing yagna for Devas, If you don't bring my wife back." Indra knew that if he wants to remain in business he will have to convince Tara to return to Brihaspati. Tara returned, not alone but with Chandra's child in her womb. When Brihaspati heard about this child he lost his temper and cursed the unborn child to be born of neutral gender, neither male nor female. This child was called Budh (god of planet Mercury).

As we keep hearing always, "Everything happens for a reason", so was Brishaspati's curse. One day Budh met a woman named "Ila" and instantly fell in love and married her. Actually Ila was a man, once upon a time he accidentally entered a forest which was under a spell casted by lord Shiva which would transform every
male into female. He prayed to lord Shiva to restore his manhood but it was not possible to undo it, so lord Shiva modified his spell such that he would be a man when moon waxes and a woman when moon wanes. Budh was neither man nor woman while Ila was both man and woman, thus they were perfect for each other.

                                               

Together, Budh and Ila produced many children, known as "Chanravanshi", descendants of moon.One of the descendant of moon, Pururava, was a handsome prince who happened to meet Uravashi an Apsara, a river-nymph. Pururava had never seen such a beauty in his entire life. Without much ado, he ceased the opportunity and proposed her. Uravashi agreed but with few conditions. Pururava was so much in love with Urvashi that he agreed to those conditions and both got married and had many children. Indra couldn't bear the fact that his beloved Apsara, Uravashi was spending too much time on earth so he tricked Pururava and managed to get her back in Indralok. Pururava was heartbroken when Uravashi left.
 
                                                 

Yayati was another Chandravanshi,  who once rescued Devyani, daughter of Shukra, guru of Asuras from the well she had been pushed by Sarmishtha, daughter of king of Asuras. Later on Yayati married Devyani while Sarmishtha accompanied them as maid in Yayati's kingdom. But punishment turned out to be blessing for Sarmishtha when Yayati fell in love with her and married her. Now Yayati had two wivies Devyani and Sarmishtha. He had one son from each. Yadu, born of Devyani and Puru, born of Sarmishtha. Everything was going well until Yayati was cursed to become old and impotent. The curse could be softened only if one of his sons accepted the curse on his behalf. Yadu denied but Puru accepted it. Enraged Yayati enlarged upon the punishment to his eldest son Yadu, "Neither you nor your descendants will ever be kings". The unlucky Yadu left the kingdom and settled in Mathura where his lineage flourished. Yadu's descendants are now known as Yadav, of which I am one. Yadavas since then are king makers but never kings.
                                       

Once a king Kaushik was performing ascetic practices called tapasya. Indra was not happy to see this, knowing if Kaushik succeeds he will replace him, so he sent an Apsara, Menaka. Menaka managed to attract Kaushik and union of two was a girl child. Both abandoned the child in forest. Rishi Kanva found this girl and named her Shakuntala. Rishi Kanva raised Shakuntala as his own daughter, she grew up to be a very beautiful and cultured woman.

One fine day, King Dushyant, son of Puru saw Shakuntala in forest and fell in love with her. Dushyant and Shakuntala got married secretly and had a son who was named Bharat. Yeah! The same King Bharat after whom our country has derived name "Bhaarat". Parallelly, Yadu had a son Devmidha.

Bharat grew up to a great king. He had many wives and sons from them. But Bharat was somehow not happy with any of his sons and felt none of them was worthy of his throne. So finally Bharat decicded to adopt a son, Vitatha, who was talented enough to be his heir. Just like Shakuntala, Vitatha was abandoned by his parents. Vitatha was outcome of Brihaspati and Mamata, when Brihaspati had forced himself on Mamata in the moment of lust. Throughout the epic children suffer due to faults of their parents (Shakuntala, Vitatha, Yadu, Puru and Karan)
Generations later Kuru became the king, founder of the Kuru dynasty. Due to his performance of sacrifice and asceticism at the site, the place was known as Kurukshetra, named after Kuru. Kuru's son was Pratipa.
                                                   

In the meantime, Devmidha, Yadu's son married two woman, one from royal family and other from cowherd family. He had sons from each. Son from royal wife was Sursena while the other one was Parjanya.
Sursena's children were Vasudeva and Kunti while Parjanya's son was Nanda (Krishna's foster father). Vasudeva had three children Balaram, Krishna and Subhadra. Now that makes sense why Vasudeva decided to keep Krishna with Nanda of all the people out there. (I know these characters are not from Kuru family but still some of them played crucial role in the epic like Kunti and Krishna)
                                               

Now coming back to Kuru family, Pratipa's son was Shantanu. Shantanu fell in love with Ganga. He proposed her "Be my wife", he said. "I will" said Ganga,"provided you promise me that you will never question any of my act" Shantanu was so blinded in love that he agreed. Both got married. Ganga was pregnant with Shantanu's first child. As soon as child was born Ganga drowned him in river. She did the same to seven of Shantanu's son and he could not do anything but watch helplessly because he promised Ganga that he would never question her. But he couldn't stop himself eighth time and finally he broke his silence "Stop you merciless lady, Let him live" he said. Ganga stopped and said "Honey, You broke your promise, now I cant stay with you just like Urvashi left Pururava once. The seven children whom I killed were 8 vasus who were cursed to be reborn as mortals and I helped them to keep their stay as short as possible but alas 8th vasu have to stay longer." Saying so Ganga left. Child was named "Devarata".
After few years Shantanu happened to fall in love again with a woman named Satyavati. Again he proposed Satyavati "Be my wife",  he said. "I will" said Satyavati, "Provided you promise me that only my children would be your heir." Shantanu disagreed this time he knew that Devarata was already his prince. He went into depression for not being able to get Satyavati. When Devarata learnt about this, he took the vow that he will never marry and he will renounce the claim of throne so that Satyavati's conditon is satisfied and Shantanu can marry her. Everyone was so stunned by this act of Devarata that he was renamed as "Bheeshma."

Well, Satyavati already had a son with sage Parashara(without loosing virginity, now that's astonishing isn't it?) before getting married to Shantanu. The son was raised by Parashara. He was named Krishna Dwaipayana. Later on he was renamed as Ved Vyas, the compiler of vedas. (Also the author of Mahabharata).

Now, Shantanu and Satyavati had two sons Chitrangada and Vichitraveer. Chitrangada died before marriage. Vichitraveer was supposedly weakling. Bheeshma got him two wives Ambika and Ambalika. But Vichitraveer died before he could father any children. This way Kuru bloodline came to an end. Technically, Bheeshma was last true Kuru. But Satyavati was determined to have her children on throne. She called upon her son Vyas and requested him to make two widows pregnant by the law of Niyog. He agreed. He first went to Ambika. She was so scared to see Vyas that she closed her eyes when he touched her. The child thus born of union was blind. He was Dhritarashtra. He then went Ambalika, she turned pale on seeing him, child thus born was weak called Pandu. Satyavati was clearly not happy with the fact that both the children were not fit. So she insisted Vyas to visit Ambika again. But Ambika tricked Vyas this time. She sent a maid instead. This child was healthy and wise. He was named Vidur.
                                                 

Finally the most awaited generation comes into picture. The ones who actually fight in the war. Dhritarashtra married Gandhari while Pandu married Kunti first but since Pandu was not able to father a child on Kunti, he was married to Madri. After his second marriage, Pandu was cursed by a sage that he will die as soon as he touches a woman.When Kunti learnt about this, She revealed that she had magical mantra by which she can summon any Devas and have a son from them instantly. Kunti managed to have three sons:

1. Yudhistir from Yama also known as Dharma.

2. Bhim from Vayu (wind-god)

3. Arjun from Indra (king of Devas)

Kunti shared her mantra with Madri. Madri invoked Ashwin twins lords of morning and evening. They gave Madri Nakula and Sahadeva

Gandhari was really not happy to hear that Kunti had become mother before her. Gandhari had conceived much before but her pregnancy continued for two years. She was impatient now and asked her maids to strike her belly and result was a ball of flesh. On Vyas's advice flesh was cut into 101 pieces and kept in pots of Ghee. Thus were born hundred sons and one daughter.

                                               

Now, Everyone knows that five Pandavas married Draupadi and each had one son with her. Apart from Draupadi each had other wives too but I don't think that should be mentioned here. But Yes I would like to mention Arjun's second wife Subhadra whose son was Abhimanyu who married Uttara and they had a son Parikshit who ruled Hastinapur after Yudhistir. Duryodhan had a son Lakshman who was killed by Abhimanyu in Kurukshetra.

                                           

Phew! This is how probably Kuru family tree looks like. I feel still many of them are missing from this tree.

                                                   

Disclaimer:

I came up with this lineage based on extensive reading of epic over the years and stories narrated by my dearest father. I managed to get the root of the lineage from "Jaya: An Illustrated retelling of Mahabharata" written by Devdutt Pattnaik and last but not the least "Mahabharat" TV serial by B.R.Chopra.
I have tried my best to describe the stories known to me but these stories have many versions so it is possible that one may read or hear a different version. Also, Each generations had many sons, wives, daughters and extra affairs but I have mentioned only the most relevant ones.