1. The Hot War
    1. Karna attacks Indraprastha


      2. Karna plans a blitzkrieg attack on Indraprastha for the days just before the monsoons. The monsoons traditionally were a bad time for war. By planning a surprise attack, Karna hoped to catch the Pandavas off-guard just as they were shutting down operations.

      The war is devastating. Ghatotkacha is killed by Karna. Draupadi's brother is killed. (Etc..)

    2. The monsoons trap Karna's army


      3. The Pandavas are almost defeated. They manage to hold out till the rains come.

      Karna now faces the difficulties of fighting during the rains. His army is stuck in mud and unable to retreat. The Pandavas massacre his army and Karna himself is killed while fleeing unarmed on foot.

    3. Famine in Hastinapur


      4. As a result of the single-minded planning for war, Hastinapur has been neglecting agriculture. The dams on the Ganges have not been maintained since Bhishma (who built many of them in the first place) died. The irrigation systems burst and the fields are flooded and the crops fail. Famine strikes Hastinapur.

    4. Hastinapur is sacked
    The Pandavas attack Hastinapur with Krishna’s advice and support and sack the city. Duryodhana and his brothers are killed. Dhritarashtra is freed, but he abdicates in favor of Y.

    All the children of the Pandavas have died in the wars.

  2. Krishna the Law-giver
    1. Laws for the empire


      2. Krishna-Vyaasa proposes a new set of laws for the empire, based on the experience with the old ones. The workable ones are deemed to be the caste system, vegetarianism, and cow-protection.

    2. After the war


      3. The Pandavas have only one descendant -- the son of Abhimanyu (son of Arjuna). Krishna saves the child during childbirth.

      Arjuna had vowed revenge against Jayadratha, the Sindhu king of Ujjain for his actions during the war. He kills Jayadratha and his grandson is crowned king in Ujjain.

      Krishna's city Mathura neglects maintenance on the dikes that keep the sea from flooding the city. A hurricane strikes the coast and the city is in ruins. The Yadavas destroy the city in internecine battles. Krishna is assassinated.

      Y is made the Vyaasa. This is the time of the greatest flowering for the SoP.

    3. Decline of the SoP
    The other Pandavas dies of old age. Y abdicates and becomes a sanyasin and wanders around the the country with his only friend, a dog. In every place, he is viewed askance because of this attachment to a dog. In his role as Vyaasa, he expounds on loyalty as a prime virtue. His speeches are tolerated.

    The success of the SoP's program under Krishna resulted in a loss of focus. Y tries to disband it, but a secret core controlled by brahmins survives. Y initiates a project to describe the series of experiments that resulted in the victory of the SoP's program as a poem.

    When Y dies, he does not name a Vyaasa. The secret group continues Y's program to describe the SoP's success -- this will become the Mahabharata.

  3. Epilog
    1. Decline of the empire


      2. Krishna's laws are extremely successful -- they help the new empire survive a number of crises that surrounding kingdoms succumb to. As a result the laws of the empire take hold in other countries, even though the empire does not expand significantly. The new laws form the basis of a new social system.

    2. Yudhisthira renounces the world


      3. The Mahabharata is written down by the remnant of the SoP in secret. Changes proposed by brahmin revisers are incorporated. Three hundred years pass. The manuscript is "discovered" during the reign of the Guptas. The discovery results in the breakup of the SoP which had been keeping it secret. However, the discovery becomes part of the canon of the new Hindu religion.

    3. Chandragupta renounces the world


      4. 16 years have passed. CM has heard the entire story. He understands that the story of Jaya is the story of a different way to influence the world. He is also old and he has decided to become a Jaina monk -- he thinks that there is some relationship between Jain ideas and the ideas of Y.

      Kautilya tries to get C to change his mind but is not successful.

      CM takes his key advisors, and his son and goes south to the boundary of his empire. In the presence of these people, he renounces his kingdom and crosses over into the forest beyond the empire’s boundaries.

      His son, the new emperor is upset with K. He interrogates him and decides that the story told by K was responsible for his father’s decision. He orders K put into isolation for the rest of his life. K dies.

    4. What next


      5. The new emperor is chatting with his youngest son, Asoka, who wonders what happened to his grand-dad. His father explains that CM became a Jain and killed himself because he was misled by the brahmin K. Asoka vows that when his older brother becomes emperor he will make sure that no brahmin gets the opportunity to talk to his brother. His father smiles and ruffles his head.

      Asoka’s brother refuses the throne, Asoka becomes emperor. Asoka avoids brahmins, but after his Kalinga victory, he starts listening to Buddhist monks. His brother in the meantime has become a monk. At one point, Asoka announces a bounty of one gold coin on the heads of Jain monks. His brother is mistaken for a Jain monk, killed and his head brought in for the gold.

    5. The end of History
Cow protection becomes cow worship.

Wood is a scarce commodity and is no longer used for construction.

The caste system flourishes -- conspicuous consumption can be controlled and a safety net provided. However, more and more of the population begins to fall outside the caste system.

Buddhism and Jainism fail because Krishna-Vyaasa's laws succeed where B&J did not propose solutions.

Polyandry died with the Pandavas. Before Y died, he spent a few years in a small community on the foothills of the Himalayas. A small obscure sect in that region continue to practice polyandry to this day. They claim to be descended from the Pandavas.