The Mahābhārata - Hindu Epic Overview

The Mahābhārata

• The Mahābhārata is a major Hindu epic and one of the two Sanskrit epics of ancient India, revered in Hinduism.
• It is considered one of the most important works in the context of world civilization, comparable to the Bible, the Quran, and the works of Homer and William Shakespeare.

Structure and Length

• The longest version of the Mahābhārata consists of over 100,000 śloka (couplets) and 200,000 individual verse lines.
• It is approximately 1.8 million words in total, making it roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined.
• It is about four times the length of the Rāmāyaṇa, another major Hindu epic.

Authorship and Textual History

• The epic is traditionally ascribed to the sage Vyasa, who is also a major figure in the epic.
• Vyasa described the Mahābhārata as an itihasa (history).
• The text employs a story within a story structure, known as frametales, popular in many Indian religious and non-religious works.

Content

• The epic 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.
• It includes several principal works and stories, such as the Bhagavad Gita, the story of Damayanti, and an abbreviated version of the Rāmāyaṇa.

Composition and History

• The bulk of the Mahābhārata was probably compiled between the 3rd century BCE and the 3rd century CE.
• The oldest preserved parts of the text are not much older than around 400 BCE.
• The text probably reached its final form by the early Gupta period (c. 4th century CE).