Introduction:

raamaayaNa and mahaabhaarata, the two great epics, have captivated the hearts of the people of India for thousands of years. There is no aspect of life which is not influenced by these epics - literature, arts, crafts, painting, music, dance, drama, temple motifs, whatever. raama, kRSNa, and other characters in these epics live in the minds of people all the time. There is no place that does not have an association with the characters in these epics - raama taking bath in this lake, siita cooking here or kRSNa playing with his friends there. raama and kRSNa are the very avataara-s (incarnations) of Lord viSNu - they always live in the hearts of the people.

raamaayaNa and mahaabhaarata are considered to be itihaasa (literally "verily did it exist thus"), that is history. These are not mere stories or imaginations. Modern scholars also accept that at least the characters must have really existed and the core parts of these epics must have actually happened. There are simply too many connections to things we can see today, to rule out the whole thing as mere fiction.

The Date and Authorship:

Scholars have struggled hard to fix the date of the famous war of mahaabhaarata at kurukSeetra. If the meticulously preserved tradition is to be believed, the war took place in the year 3139 BC, more than five thousand years ago. Astronomical data and writings of Megasthanes (312 BC) also corroborate with this. Modern historians tend to believe that the war took place much later, in the year 1424 BC. Yet another school gives 950 BC as the date. In any case, history in India dates back to thousands of years. The notions of ancient and recent past are very different in different countries. World war may be history for some countries with a very short history but for us Indians, the two world wars happened during the days of the living people, it happened in this age, now, here. For us, past means at least a few thousands of years ago. We keep regularly visiting temples built a couple of thousand years ago, we do not find it hard to imagine that people were advanced so much in those days. After all the human form has existed and evolved gradually over some five hundred thousand years on planet earth. Everything great could not have happened in the last two years or so as many tend to think.

mahaabhaarata is supposed to have been composed by veeda vyaasa, the same person who re-organized the veeda-s into Rk, yajur, saama and atharva. He was a contemporary of the grandsire bhiiSma and had a first-hand knowledge of all the events in the epic. He is also known as kRSNa dvaipaayana.

Researchers believe that the original work, containing only about 8800 verses, called jaya (victory) was written by vyaasa. This was subsequently revised and enlarged into bhaarata, a work of 24000 verses, by vais'ampaayana, a disciple of vyaasa and recited during the sarpa-yajna (serpent sacrifice) of janameejaya, the great grandson of arjuna. The final edition, called mahaabhaarata, is a work of suuta ugras'ravas, son of loomaharSaNa, and was recited at the sattra-yaaga (which spreads over several years) of the sage s'aunaka in the naimiSa forest. mahaabhaarata deals with the story of the people of India, descendants of the ancient emperor bharata. mahaabhaarata is said to have 1,00,000 verses, although extant texts have somewhat less. In any case it is surely the biggest book ever written.

Some scholars have tried to argue that the epic actually evolved over a long period of eight centuries, spread over the period 400 BC to 400 AD but this has not been firmly established.

Structure:

There are the Northern and Southern recensions, the Southern one being generally considered to be in better shape. One of the standard editions published contains 18 parva-s (books) with 107 sub-parva-s and 2111 chapters (including the appendix harivaMs'a), containing a total of 95,826 verses.

mahaabhaarata is the largest work of mankind, eight times bigger than Homer's Illiad and Odyssey put together. mahaabhaarata is not only huge, it also touches upon every aspect of life. vyaasoocchiSTaM jagatsarvaM - the entire world is what vyaasa has already chewed and spit out. It includes, for example, didactic material and kuuTa-s'looka-s or riddles and many a great mind has tried its skill on these.

The gloss by niilakaMTa (16th Century) is well known.

Contents in Brief:

1. aadi parva: Episodes relating to s'ukraacaarya, the preceptor of the asura-s; His daughter deevayaani; yayaati, a prominent king of the caMdra vaMs'a; The story of s'akuMtala and duSyaMta; Ancestors of the paaMDava-s and kaurava-s such as s'aMtanu, bhiiSma, vicitraviirya, dhRtaraaSTra, paMDu; Birth and education of the paaMDava-s and kaurava-s; Early rivalries between them; Marriage of paaMcaala princess draupadi to the paaMDava-s; arjuna's pilgrimage and marriage with kRSNa's sister subhadra


2. sabhaa parva: raajasuuya yajnya by yudhiSThira; The game of dice maneuvered by duryoodhana, and its consequences


3. araNya parva (vana parva): paaMDava-s in exile in the kaamyaka vana; Stories of naLa and damayaMti, saavitri and satyavaan, RSyas'RMga, agastya, maarkaaMdeeya, bhagiiratha, s'ibi; The famous quiz yakSapras'na


4. viraaTa parva: ajnyaatavaasa (staying incognito) of the paaMDava-s in the kingdom of viraaTa; Slaying of kiicaka; Battle for the rescue of virraTa's cow captured by the kaurava-s; Wedding of the viraaTa princess uttaraa with arjuna's son abhimanyu


5. udyooga parva: Peace parleys and concurrent preparations for the war; kuMti's disclosure of the secret to karNa of his birth in her womb; last minute bid for peace by kRSNa; sanatsujaatiiya - the famous philosophical discourse of the sage sanatsujaata to the blind king dhRtaraaSTra


6. bhiiSma parva: bhagavadgiita; The first ten days of the war; bhiiSma's super human exploits and his being mortally wounded by arjuna; bhiiSma's s'ara s'ayya (lying on the bed of arrows)


7. drooNa parva: drooNa's heroism and his killing through strategem; brilliant achievements of the boy hero abhimanyu and his tragic death


8. karNa parva: Gory death of dus's'aasana at the hands of bhiima; Fall of karNa at the hands of arjuna


9. s'alya parva: duryoodhana succumbing to mortal blow of bhiima in the final encounter on the last day of the war


10. sauptika parva: Gruesome massacre of the paaMDava army and allies at night by as'vatthaama, drooNa's vengeful son


11. strii parva: The pitiful lamentations of the women and widows of the dead warriors


12. s'aanti parva: Discourses on dharma by bhiiSma on the request of yudhiSThira ???


13. anus'aasanika parva: bhiiSma's demise; yudhiSThira's coronation; vis'Nu-sahasra-naama; s'iva-sahasra-naama; anugiita, a subsidiary discourse by kRSNa


14. aas'vameedhika parva: Departure of kRSNa to dvaaraka; as'vameedha yaaga by yudhiSThira; The humiliation of yudhiSThira by a talking weasel


15. aas'ramavaasika parva: Departure of dhRtaraaSTra along with gaaMdhaari and kuMti; their subsequent death in a forest fire


16. mausala parva: Mutual destruction of the yaadava heroes; The death of kRSNa at the hands of a hunter


17. mahaaprasthaanika parva: The final journey of the paaMDava-s; their death on the way except yudhiSThira


18. svargaaroohaNa parva: yudhiSThira reaching the heaven

Characters:

You find every possible type of human character in mahaabhaarata, from the supremely sublime to the utterly ridiculous, from the most pious to the most horribly cruel.

• s'rii kRSNa: You have to read mahaabhaarata to know why kRSNa is considered to be God Himself. kRSNa's remarkable prowess, bewitching beauty, sage counsels, superb strategies, superb statesmanship, everything is in the superlative. He has come down to earth to protect he good and destroy the wicked. None other than God himself could have given such a clear picture of the true nature of man and his problems, and the path to perfection as we find in the giita.


• bhiiSma: Another towering personality, bhiiSma, the grand old man, inspires us through his supreme sacrifice of abdicating his right to the throne, his vow of celibacy and his matchless heroism in the battlefield. A veritable encyclopaedia of knowledge, his teachings are of eternal value to mankind.


• yudhiSThira (dharmaraaya): yudhiSThira (yudhi sthira meaning steady in the battle) is a rare combination of a great hero in the battle and the very embodyment of dharma (hence the name dharmaraaya). His thinking was always crystal clear as to which is Good and which is Bad and why. And come what may, he would never swerve an inch from the path of dharma. His wisdom is seen at its best in the yakSapras'na. It is worth noting that yudhiSThira was the only one who makes it to the heaven in the end.


• bhiima: Colossal yet down to earth, bhiima was an ardent devotee of kRSNa.


• arjuna: The greatest of the warriors, arjuna is idealistic and dreamy. Thanks to arjuna's confusions and delusion, we get the nectar of giita.


• drooNa: drooNa, the preceptor and warrior, appears a shade darker than bhiiSma. Despite all his learning and austerity, he was vengeful.


• vidura: Known for vidura-niiti, his discourse to dhRtaraaSTra. vidura, the son of a maid-servant, strikes us for his sagacity and intense devotion to kRSNa.


• duryoodhana: The chief villain in the epic, duryoodhana's greed and jealousy overshadowed his heroism and brought near-total destruction of the two races and untold miseries to millions.


• karNa: A tragedy, a victim of circumstances, karNa's was supremely noble, infinitely generous, and the last word for loyalty and friendship.


• dhRtaraaSTra: Blind in the eyes and blind in the mind, this vacillating king's inordinate infatuation for his children made him blind to his duties and responsibilities to uphold dharma.


• draupadi: A great example of wifely virtues, draupadi was characterized by striking beauty, sharp intellect and a sharper tongue.


• kuMti: Helpless but noble, the fortitude with which she silently bore all her misfortunes and miseries is unparalleled.


• gaaMdhaari: A paragon of ideal wife-hood, gaaMdhaari made the supreme sacrifice of denying herself the pleasures of eyesight, because her husband was born blind. She was ever devoted to dharma and she admonished duryoodhana for his wicked deeds.

dharma in mahaabhaarata:

mahaabhaarata is not just an interesting story. Nor is it mere history. It is a veritable encyclopaedia of dharma. veeda vyaasa reorganized the veeda-s. Not satisfied, he composed mahaabhaarata for the benefit of those who would find it easy to grasp the high ideals of sanaatana dharma through stories and examples rather than through the mystic and abstract veedic maMtra-s. mahaabhaarata is therefore known as paMcama veeda, the fifth veeda. Every variety of dharma, be it the dharma of leadership, the dharma of war, the dharma of work, the dharma of a husband, the dharma of a wife, the dharma of children, or the dharma of emancipation find a place here. There is no exaggeration in the statement "If there is anything anywhere in the world, it is there in mahaabhaarata. If there is something that is not there here, you will not find it anywhere else."