आदि Ādi

The first book — and the longest in adhyaya count after Śānti and Āraṇyaka. It opens at Naimiṣa forest, where the bard Ugraśravas (Sauti) arrives among the rishis attending the long sacrifice of Śaunaka and offers to narrate the great epic he heard from Vaiśampāyana at Janamejaya's snake sacrifice. The book lays the foundations: the genealogies of the Kuru and Yadava lineages, the curses that drive Bhīṣma's vow, the births of the principal characters, the rivalry of the cousins, the burning of the lac house, the marriage to Draupadī, and ends with the burning of the Khāṇḍava forest. Everything that follows is consequence.