This volume presents the opening sections of the ancient epic, tracing the origins and lineage of the Kuru dynasty and the interconnected tales that lead to the birth and upbringing of the principal houses; through genealogies, legends, and embedded stories it introduces the central characters—royal patriarchs, sages, heroic princes and their rivals—and sketches the moral, political and familial tensions, obligations, and rivalries that gradually set the stage for the great conflict to come.