Vishma raised DhritaRashtra, Pandu and Bidur as if his own children. DhritaRashtra grew extraordinarily strong, Pandu became a master archer and Bidur was exceptionally pious.

Pandu was the obvious heir to the throne because Dhritarashta was blind and Bidur was a shudra.

Vishma, in consultation with Bidur, arranged DhritaRashtra's marriage to Gandhari – the daughter of  Subol --the king of Gandhar .

After her marriage to a blind man,  Gandhari covered her eyes with a black bandage.  She did not want to supersede her husband by any means.

Shur was Basudev 's father and the leader of Yadu  clan. Shur had a daughter, named Prithwa .

Shur donated Prithwa to king KuntiBhoj , his nephew, who was childless. Prithwa became known as Kunti after the name of her adopted father.

Kunti once looked after Saint Durbasha while the saint was a house guest at KuntiBhoj 's palace. Durbasha was pleased and taught her a mantra . "You can invite any god by this mantra. He will beget you a son": Durbasha told her.

Out of curiosity, young Kunti invited Surya -- the Sun god.

Surya appeared and asked her: "O cat-eyed girl, what do you want?"

Kunti told him about Durbasha's mantra and apologized for her indiscretion.

Surya assured her: "Your invitation would not go waste. You will beget my son. But you will remain a virgin".

Kunti gave birth to an angelic son who was born with a body armor and ear-ring of a warrior. This firstborn of Kunti would later become famous as a great warrior Karna .

But as a unwed mother, Kunti was ashamed. She secretly floated the newborn in the river on a pot.

Adhirath and Radha – a childless suta couple – found the baby floating in the river inside a pot and took the baby home.

They raised the baby like their own and named him BasuSen .

BasuSen or Karna , as he would be known later, learned to handle all kinds of weapons as he grew up. Karna used to worship the sun till noon.

One day, Indra – the god of the gods – came to him disguised as a brahmin.

Indra asked Karna for his body armor. Karna took off the armor and gave it away.

Indra pleased by the generous gesture donated Karna the Shakti Ashtra – a weapon that never failed to kill the target and always returned to its owner.

KuntiBhoj organized Swamvar for her adopted daughter Kunti. Kunti chose Pandu as her husband at Swambar.

Vishma, however, wanted another wife for Pandu. So Vishma went to King Shalya and asked for his sister.

Shalya said: "You must be aware of one of our customs. I can not ignore the customs, whether they are good or bad".

"There is no harm in following the customs": Vishma replied.

Vishma offered Shalya the dowry of gold, gems, elephants, horses. Shalya was pleased and offered his sister Madri for marriage.

Vishma brought Madri to Hastinapur and married her to Pandu.

Shudra wife of King Debak had a daughter from a bramhin's seed. Bidur was married to her.