Mahabharata family tree
Five brothers, one wife: see how Draupadi's five marriages, Kunti's sons and Vyasa's role fit into one family, from the Kuru kings to Krishna's Yadavas.
- 129
- people
- 8
- generations
- 50
- marriages
See it from their seat
Your family can look like this, every marriage and cousin in its place.Start with your own name, no account
The kings of Hastinapura, in order
Who is related to whom in the Mahabharata family
How are Arjuna and Duryodhana related?
Duryodhana is Arjuna’s first cousin (chachera bhai in Hindi): their fathers were brothers. Both descend from Vyasa.
How are Arjuna and Karna related?
Karna is Arjuna’s half-brother (bhai in Hindi). Both descend from Kunti.
How are Krishna and Arjuna related?
Arjuna is Krishna’s first cousin, and also his brother-in-law. Both descend from Shurasena.
How is Ghatotkacha related to Arjuna?
Arjuna is Ghatotkacha’s paternal uncle (chacha in Hindi). Both descend from Pandu and Kunti.
How are Draupadi and Subhadra related?
Subhadra is Draupadi’s co-wife: both were married to Arjuna.
How is Parikshit related to Arjuna?
Arjuna is Parikshit’s paternal grandfather (dada in Hindi).
How is Vyasa related to Bhishma?
Bhishma is Vyasa’s stepbrother.
How are Yudhishthira and Bhima related?
Bhima is Yudhishthira’s brother (bhai in Hindi). Both descend from Pandu and Kunti.
How is Shakuni related to Duryodhana?
Duryodhana is Shakuni’s nephew (bhanja in Hindi). Both descend from Subala.
How is Abhimanyu related to Krishna?
Krishna is Abhimanyu’s maternal uncle (mama in Hindi). Both descend from Vasudeva.
Someone in your own family? Work out what they are to you, in English and Hindi.
Your family has stories like the Mahabharata family’s too.
Bargad draws them the same way: every marriage, every cousin, each card labelled from where you stand. Free, and no account needed to start.
The Mahabharata family, generation by generation
Each name links to its source.
- Dasharaja
- Satyavati: The fisher-chief's daughter who became Shantanu's queen, mother of Vyasa and grandmother, in effect, of both warring houses. · married Shantanu: King of Hastinapura whose two marriages, to Ganga and to Satyavati, set the whole epic in motion.
- Vichitravirya · married Ambalika
- Vichitravirya also married Ambika
- Chitrangada of Hastinapura
- Satyavati also married Parashara
- Vyasa: The sage credited with composing the epic, and the biological father of Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura.
- Shuka
- Vyasa also married Parishrami
- Vidura: Half-brother of Dhritarashtra and Pandu, the Kuru house's wise minister, who spoke for justice against his own king.
- Vyasa also married Ambika
- Dhritarashtra: The blind king of Hastinapura, father of the hundred Kauravas, who could not rein in his eldest son.
- Yuyutsu: Dhritarashtra's son by a Vaishya attendant, who left the Kaurava camp for the Pandavas before the war.
- Dhritarashtra also married Gandhari: Princess of Gandhara who blindfolded herself for life in solidarity with her husband Dhritarashtra.
- Duryodhana: Eldest of the hundred Kaurava brothers, whose refusal to share the kingdom led to the Kurukshetra war. · married Bhanumati
- Lakshmana of Hastinapura · married Samba
- Lakshmana Kumara
- Dushasana
- Duhsala: The hundred Kauravas' only sister, married to Jayadratha of Sindhu. · married Jayadratha
- Vikarna: The one Kaurava who spoke up for Draupadi in the dice hall.
- Chitrasena
- Durdharsha
- Durmarshana
- Durmukha
- Dussaha
- Jalasandha
- Subahu
- Vivimshati
- Vyasa also married Ambalika
- Pandu: Dhritarashtra's younger brother, a king cursed never to father children himself; the legal father of the five Pandavas. · married Madri: Pandu's second wife, mother of the twins Nakula and Sahadeva.
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- Nakula · married Draupadi: Princess of Panchala and wife of all five Pandavas, who was staked and humiliated at the dice game.
- Shatanika
- Nakula also married Karenumati
- Niramitra
- Sahadeva · married Draupadi
- Shrutakarma
- Sahadeva also married Vijaya
- Suhotra
- Pandu also married Kunti: Mother of the three elder Pandavas and, before her marriage, of Karna.
- Arjuna: Third Pandava, the archer to whom Krishna spoke the Gita, and the husband of Draupadi, Subhadra, Ulupi and Chitrangada. · married Draupadi
- Shrutakirti
- Arjuna also married Chitrangada of Manipura
- Babhruvahana
- Arjuna also married Ulupi
- Iravan
- Arjuna also married Subhadra: Krishna's half-sister, who married Arjuna and became the mother of Abhimanyu.
- Abhimanyu: Arjuna and Subhadra's son, killed at sixteen inside the chakravyuha, and the father of Parikshit. · married Uttara
- Parikshit: Abhimanyu's posthumous son, born after the war and revived by Krishna, who inherited the Kuru throne. · married Madravati
- Janamejaya: Parikshit's son, to whom the epic itself is told at his snake sacrifice.
- Bhima: Second Pandava, the strongest of the brothers, who killed Duryodhana and Dushasana. · married Draupadi
- Sutasoma
- Bhima also married Hidimbi
- Ghatotkacha: Bhima's son by the rakshasi Hidimbi, who fell on the war's fourteenth night.
- Bhima also married Valandhara
- Sarvaga
- Yudhishthira: Eldest Pandava and the epic's king of dharma, who lost everything at dice and won it back at Kurukshetra. · married Draupadi
- Prativindhya
- Yudhishthira also married Devika
- Yaudheya
Also in this tree, through marriage
- Balarama: Krishna's elder half-brother, who stayed out of the war.
- Kripi
- Druhyu
- Pratipa
- Samvarana
- Bharata: The emperor who gave the epic its name: the Bharatas, and so the 'great story of the Bharatas'.
- Bhishma: Shantanu's son who gave up the throne and marriage by vow, then guarded the Kuru house; grand-uncle by law of the Pandavas, since Pandu's legal father was his half-brother Vichitravirya.
- Bhadra
- Lakshmana of Madra
- Mitravinda
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- Nagnajiti
- Sudeshna
- Rukmini: Krishna's chief queen, mother of Pradyumna.
- Jambavan
- Shakuni: Gandhari's brother, the Gandhara prince whose dice game cost the Pandavas their kingdom.
- Rohini
- Ashwatthama
- Yayati: Ancestor of both the Yadavas and the Kurus; his sons Yadu and Puru founded the two lines.
- Shikhandi
- Dhrishtadyumna
- Yashoda
- Drupada
- Vrishasena
- Vasishtha
- Adhiratha
- Anu
- Rukmi
- Nahusha
- Nanda
- Yadu: Yayati's eldest son, from whom the Yadavas, and so Krishna, descend.
- Satyabhama
- Karna: Kunti's firstborn, raised by a charioteer, who fought for Duryodhana without knowing the Pandavas were his brothers.
- Virata
- Kalindi
- Jambavati
- Devayani
- Revati
- Pradyumna
- Devaki
- Dushyanta
- Bhishmaka
- Kuntibhoja
- Shurasena: Yadava chief, father of Vasudeva and of Kunti, which makes Krishna a first cousin of Kunti's three sons (Yudhishthira, Bhima and Arjuna).
- Kuru: The king whose name the Kuru kingdom and Kurukshetra carry; Kauravas and Pandavas are both his heirs.
- Radha
- Krishna: Vasudeva and Devaki's son, Arjuna's cousin, brother-in-law and charioteer, who spoke the Gita on the eve of the war.
- Tapati
- Ganga · family of Shantanu
- Puru: Yayati's youngest son, who took on his father's old age and became the founder of the Paurava line.
- Bharadvaja
- Shakti Maharshi
- Vasudeva: Yadava chief, Kunti's brother, and father of Krishna, Balarama and Subhadra.
- Drona
- Shakuntala
- Kripa: Teacher of the Kuru princes, twin brother of Kripi (Drona's wife), and one of three Kaurava survivors of the war.
- Madraraja
- Shalya: King of Madra and brother of Madri, so uncle of Nakula and Sahadeva; he fought for the Kauravas and was killed by Yudhishthira.
- Subala
- Sunanda
- Uparichara Vasu
- Vrushali
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Photo credits
The pictures on the cards are from Wikimedia Commons, shown at thumbnail size under the licence named on each file. Pictures of living people appear only for public figures (politicians, royals, and film, music and sport people with no personality-rights order or suit in India we know of). Anyone else, and anyone under 18, shows initials.
Show the 43 creditsHide the credits
- Draupadi: photo by Raja Ravi Varma, Public domain
- Balarama: photo, author unknown, Public domain
- Bharata: photo by Raja Ravi Varma, Public domain
- Bhishma: photo by Richard Friederisk, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Bhadra: photo by Javagal Narasimhayya, Public domain
- Lakshmana of Madra: photo by Javagal Narasimhayya, Public domain
- Mitravinda: photo by Javagal Narasimhayya, Public domain
- Nagnajiti: photo by Javagal Narasimhayya, Public domain
- Rukmini: photo, author unknown, Public domain
- Jambavan: photo by Unknown artist, Public domain
- Madri: photo by Raja Ravi Varma, Public domain
- Arjuna: photo by Ilussion, CC BY 3.0
- Ghatotkacha: photo by Ms Sarah Welch, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Nakula: photo, author unknown, Public domain
- Sahadeva: photo by Own work based on: File:Draupadi and Pandavas.jpg , originally published by Ravi Varma Press, Public domain
- Dushasana: photo by Tropenmuseum, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Iravan: photo by Chainwit., CC BY-SA 4.0
- Yayati: photo by Aman1996ver, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Jayadratha: photo by http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/editorials/mahabharata/virata/mahabharata72.htm, Public domain
- Yashoda: photo by Raja Ravi Varma, Public domain
- Uttara: photo by Sunity Devee, Maharanee Artist - S. N. Das, Public domain
- Nanda: photo by Indischer Maler, Public domain
- Shuka: photo, author unknown, Public domain
- Parashara: photo by Dipu Sharma123, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Satyabhama: photo by LACMA, Public domain
- Ulupi: photo by N.Gopala rao, Public domain
- Karna: photo by Arjuna_and_His_Charioteer_Krishna_Confront_Karna.jpg : Artist/maker unknown, India, Himachal Pradesh or Jammu and Kashmir derivative work: RajeshUnuppally, Public domain
- Virata: photo by Raja Ravi Varma, Public domain
- Abhimanyu: photo, author unknown, Public domain
- Vyasa: photo by Yogesa, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Jambavati: photo by Javagal Narasimhayya, Public domain
- Devayani: photo by Bamapada Banerjee (B P Banerjee), Public domain
- Bhima: photo by Raja Ravi Varma, Public domain
- Devaki: photo by Raja Ravi Varma, Public domain
- Krishna: photo by AngMoKio, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Tapati: photo by Abhijeet bhargava, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Ganga: photo by Nomu420, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Puru: photo by http://collections.rom.on.ca/objects/355162/painting-from-a-razmnama-manuscript-of-prince-puru;jsessionid=B1CFBCCA545D2EDC3D2BFAFC4D6DA641, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Lakshmana Kumara: photo by Raja Ravi Varma, Public domain
- Bharadvaja: photo by Company School, Public domain
- Kunti: photo, author unknown, Public domain
- Vasudeva: photo by Raja Ravi Varma, Public domain
- Shakuntala: photo by Raja Ravi Varma, Public domain
Built from Wikidata (CC0) and the sources linked on each person; the descriptions are our own words. Living people are shown with their names, birth years and public family links only (and a picture, for public figures). Last checked 2026-10-30.