Mahābhārata

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An Illustration to the Mahabharata: The Pandava and Kaurava armies face each other.

Mahābhārata. One of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Rāmāyaṇa. Both texts are central to Hindu Mythology.

The Mahābhārata narrates the events and aftermath of the Kurukshetra War, a war of succession between two groups of princely cousins, the Kauravas and the Pāṇḍavas. It contains philosophical and devotional material, such as a discussion of the four "goals of life" or puruṣārtha (12.161). The famous story of the the Bhagavad Gita is included within the Mahābhārata.

The title is translated as "Great Bharat (India)", or "the story of the great descendants of Bharata", or as "The Great Indian Tale".[1][2]

The Mahābhārata is the longest epic poem known and has been described as "the longest poem ever written".[3][4] Its longest version consists of over 100,000 shlokas (verses) or over 200,000 individual lines (each shloka is a couplet), and long prose passages. At about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahābhārata is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, or about four times the length of the Rāmāyaṇa.[5][6]

Further reading

Notes

  1. ↑ Stuart, Tristram; Albinia, Alice (16 August 2007). "India's epic struggle". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 6 August 2023. Retrieved 6 August 2023. 
  2. ↑ "Mahabharata". 16 May 2021. Archived from the original on 6 August 2023. Retrieved 6 August 2023. 
  3. ↑ James G. Lochtefeld (2002). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A-M. The Rosen Publishing Group. p. 399. Retrieved 15 November 2015. 
  4. ↑ T. R. S. Sharma; June Gaur; Sahitya Akademi (New Delhi, Inde). (2000). Ancient Indian Literature: An Anthology. Sahitya Akademi. p. 137. Archived from the original on 7 September 2023. Retrieved 15 November 2015.  Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)
  5. ↑ Spodek, Howard. Richard Mason. The World's History. Pearson Education: 2006, New Jersey. 224, 0-13-177318-6
  6. ↑ Amartya Sen, The Argumentative Indian. Writings on Indian Culture, History and Identity, London: Penguin Books, 2005.
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