Mahabharata

Hindu texts

Śruti Vedas Rig Veda Sama Veda Yajurveda Atharva Veda Brahmanas Aranyakas Upanishads Smriti Itihasas Mahābhārata Bhagavad Gītā Ramayana Puranas (List) Tantras Sutras (List) Stotras Ashtavakra Gita Gherand Samhita Gita Govinda Hatha Yoga Pradipika This box: view talk edit

The Mahābhārata (/məhɑːˈbɑːrətə/;^[1][2] Sanskrit: महाभारतम्) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India written by saint Vyasa, the other is the Rāmāyaṇa.^[3] It tells of issues between two groups of cousins in the Kurukshetra War. It also tells the fates of the Kaurava and the Pāṇḍava princes and their successors.

The Mahābhārata includes philosophical and devotional material. It has a discussion of the four "goals of life" or puruṣārtha (12.161). The stories in the Mahābhārata include the Bhagavad Gita, the story of Damayanti, the story of Shakuntala, the story of Pururava and Urvashi, the story of Savitri and Satyavan, the story of Kacha and Devyani and the story of Rishyasringa. It also has a shortened version of the Rāmāyaṇa.

The Mahābhārata is normally said to be written by Vyāsa. Most of it was probably put together between the 3rd century BCE and the 3rd century CE. The oldest parts o it are not much older than around 400 BCE.^[4][5] The text probably became in its final form by the early Gupta period (c. 4th century CE).^[6][7]

The Mahābhārata is the longest epic poem known. It has been said to be "the longest poem ever written".^[8][9] Its longest version has over 100,000 śloka or over 200,000 individual verse lines. It also has and long sections of prose. The Mahābhārata has about 1.8 million words in total. It is about ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, It is about four times the length of the Rāmāyaṇa.^[10][11] The importance of the Mahābhārata to world civilization has been compared to that of the Bible, the Quran, the works of Homer, Greek drama, or the works of William Shakespeare.^[12] It is sometimes called the fifth Veda.^[13] These sections deal with a number of topics such as a number of aspects of Hinduism, Hindu mythology, ethics, and the Hindu way of life. There is also a nineteenth section named Harivamsha. The Bhagavadgita, a dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna, is a part of the Mahabharata.

Sage Vyasa taught this epic to his son Suka and his students Vaisampayana and others. King Janamejaya, the son of Parikshit and grandson of the heroes of the epic, performed a great sacrifice (yajna). The epic was retold by Vaisampayana to Janamejaya at the advice of Vyasa. Later on, the other sage Suta retold the Mahabharata similar to Vaisampayana to Janamejaya, to Saunaka and others, during a sacrifice performed by Saunaka in Naimisaranya, which is near Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh.

1. ↑ "Mahabharata" Archived 2016-07-29 at the Wayback Machine. Oxford Dictionaries Online.
2. ↑ "Mahabharata". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary,
3. ↑ Datta, Amaresh (1 January 2006). The Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature (Volume Two) (Devraj to Jyoti). ISBN 978-81-260-1194-0.
4. ↑ Austin, Christopher R. (2019). Pradyumna: Lover, Magician, and Son of the Avatara. Oxford University Press. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-19-005411-3.
5. ↑ Brockington (1998, p. 26)
6. ↑ Pattanaik, Devdutt. "How did the 'Ramayana' and 'Mahabharata' come to be (and what has 'dharma' got to do with it)?". Scroll.in.
7. ↑ Van Buitenen; The Mahabharata – 1; The Book of the Beginning. Introduction (Authorship and Date)
8. ↑ James G. Lochtefeld (2002). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A-M. The Rosen Publishing Group. p. 399. ISBN 978-0-8239-3179-8.
9. ↑ T. R. S. Sharma; June Gaur; Sahitya Akademi (New Delhi, Inde). (2000). Ancient Indian Literature: An Anthology. Sahitya Akademi. p. 137. ISBN 978-81-260-0794-3.
10. ↑ Spodek, Howard. Richard Mason. The World's History. Pearson Education: 2006, New Jersey. 224, 0-13-177318-6
11. ↑ Amartya Sen, The Argumentative Indian. Writings on Indian Culture, History and Identity, London: Penguin Books, 2005.
12. ↑ W. J. Johnson (1998). The Sauptikaparvan of the Mahabharata: The Massacre at Night. Oxford University Press. p. ix. ISBN 978-0-19-282361-8.
13. ↑ Fitzgerald, James (1985). "India's Fifth Veda: The Mahabharata's Presentation of Itself". Journal of South Asian Literature. 20 (1): 125–140.