There were five Pandava brothers in the Mahabharata: Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva.
The name Pandava means a descendant or son of Pandu, the Kuru king who is treated as their father. The epic explains that Pandu’s curse prevented him from fathering children naturally, so the brothers were born through divine intervention. Yudhishthira was associated with Dharma, Bhima with Vayu, and Arjuna with Indra; the twins Nakula and Sahadeva were associated with the Ashvin gods.
Although they are called Pandu’s sons, the five brothers have different divine parentage in the epic’s genealogy. They are the central rivals of their cousins, the Kauravas, and their conflict culminates in the Kurukshetra War. Together they also share a marriage with Draupadi, a distinctive feature of the story.
A common mix-up is to count Karna among the Pandavas. Karna is Kunti’s firstborn son and therefore their maternal half-brother, but he is not normally included in the traditional group of five Pandava brothers. The five are counted as Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva.