Mahabharata

The Mahābhārata (/məˌhɑːˈbɑːrətə, ˌmɑːhə-/ mə-HAH-BAR-ə-tə, MAH-hə-/) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India revered in Hinduism, the other being the Ramayana. It tells the story of a big war called the Kurukshetra War between two groups of royal cousins, the Kauravas and the Pāṇḍavas.

The book includes many important ideas and stories, such as the Bhagavad Gita and tales like those of Damayanti, Shakuntala, and Savitri and Satyavan. People often say Vyāsa wrote it, but scholars think it grew over many years, with most of it put together between the 3rd century BCE and the 3rd century CE.

The name means "Great Bharat (India)" or "the story of the great descendants of Bharata". It is one of the longest epic poems ever written, with over 100,000 shlokas or verses. In fact, it is about ten times longer than the Iliad and the Odyssey together! In Indian tradition, it is sometimes called the fifth Veda.

Textual history and structure

The Mahabharata is a very old story from India. It is said to have been written down by a wise man named Vyasa. He called it an itihasa, which means "history."

The story is told in a special way, like a story inside another story. It was first told by a wise man named Vaisampayana to a king named Janamejaya. Much later, another storyteller named Ugrashava Sauti told the story again to some wise people in a forest.

Some old scholars thought the Mahabharata was messy and hard to follow. They believed the original story might have been very powerful but thought the whole book was confusing.

Research shows that parts of the Mahabharata go back to very old times. The story started as an oral tale, told by traveling storytellers. Over time, the story changed with the language and styles of the times.

The Mahabharata has many parts. Some scholars think the core story had 24,000 verses, while the full version has over 100,000 verses. The story was put together in stages, with different parts added over time.

The Mahabharata includes many old stories and traditions. One part tells about a big snake sacrifice done by King Janamejaya. There are also older poems that are similar to parts of the Mahabharata.

Early writers mentioned the Mahabharata, which suggests that parts of the story were known by the 4th century BCE. Some stories from the Mahabharata became famous on their own and were used in other Indian writings.

The Mahabharata is divided into 18 main parts or books.

Historical context

The real story behind the Kurukshetra War is not clear. Many believe it happened in Iron Age India around the 10th century BCE. The story is set when the Kuru kingdom was powerful, between about 1200 to 800 BCE. Some think a real family fight from that time might have inspired the story of the Mahābhārata.

The old books called Puranic literature give family history details connected to the Mahābhārata. These histories help try to guess when events happened, but they can be hard to understand. Some old writers tried to work out the dates using the stars and planets, and they came up with different years, from around 4000 BCE to 2000 BCE. One famous date often mentioned is 3102 BCE, linked to when the hero Krishna left the world.

B. B. Lal looked at old objects found by archaeologists and matched them with places in the story, suggesting the war might have been around 836 BCE. Some believe the stories talk about times even before the oldest writings we have today.

A teacher of old Indian writings, Robert P. Goldman, says the Mahābhārata uses myths but is not just make-believe. It is a true story in the way the people of that time saw history. It is also a poem, a guide, and a way to teach good behavior in life.

Synopsis

See also: List of characters in the Mahabharata

The main story is about a fight for the throne of Hastinapura, ruled by the Kuru clan. Two branches of the family, the Kaurava and the Pandava, both want to be king. Even though the Kaurava branch is older, Duryodhana, the oldest Kaurava, is younger than Yudhishthira, the oldest Pandava. Both Duryodhana and Yudhishthira think they should be first in line to inherit the throne.

The fight ends in the Kurukshetra War, where the Pandavas win. The battle shows many conflicts between family members and friends, with duty and loyalty sometimes overriding what is right.

The Mahābhārata ends with the death of Krishna, the end of his dynasty, and the Pandava brothers going to heaven. It also marks the start of the Hindu age of Kali Yuga, a time when values and good ideas break down, and people move toward losing right action, morality, and virtue.

Themes

Just war

The Mahābhārata talks about the idea of a "just war." In the story, one of the brothers wonders if the pain from war can ever be right. The brothers have a long talk about what makes a war fair. They talk about rules like only fighting in fair ways, not hurting people who are already hurt, and making sure the fight is for a good reason.

Translations, versions and derivative works

Translations

The first Bengali translations of the Mahabharata appeared in the 16th century. It is unclear whether Kavindra Parameshwar of Hooghly or Sri Sanjay of Sylhet was the first to translate it into Bengali.

A Persian translation of Mahabharata, titled Razmnameh, was created in the 16th century under the orders of Akbar by Faizi and ʽAbd al-Qadir Badayuni.

The first full English translation was a Victorian prose version by Kisari Mohan Ganguli, published between 1883 and 1896. Another early translation by Romesh Chunder Dutt condensed the main ideas into English verse in 1898. Poet P. Lal completed a poetic version of the entire epic, published by Writers Workshop in Calcutta.

Projects to translate the Mahabharata into English prose began in 2005 from the Clay Sanskrit Library, with 15 of 32 planned volumes now available.

Scholar Shripad Damodar Satwalekar translated the Mahabharata into Hindi for the Government of India, later continued by Shrutisheel Sharma after his death.

Economist Bibek Debroy also created an unabridged English translation in ten volumes, with the first published in March 2010 and the last two in December 2014.

Another English prose translation is in progress by scholars including James L. Fitzgerald, David Gitomer, Gary Tubb, Christopher Minkowski, Alf Hiltebeitel, Patrick Olivelle, and Fred Smith.

Many shortened versions and novel-like retellings of the Mahabharata have been written in English by authors such as Ramesh Menon, William Buck, R. K. Narayan, C. Rajagopalachari, Kamala Subramaniam, K. M. Munshi, Krishna Dharma Dasa, Purnaprajna Dasa, Romesh C. Dutt, Bharadvaja Sarma, John D. Smith, and Sharon Maas.

Critical Edition

Between 1919 and 1966, scholars at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune compared many versions of the epic from India and beyond. They created the Critical Edition of the Mahabharata, a 13,000-page work in 19 volumes, followed by the Harivamsha in two more volumes and six index volumes. This version is commonly used in studies today.

Regional versions

Many regional adaptations of the Mahabharata exist, often with minor differences or added verses and side stories. These include Tamil street theatre forms such as terukkuttu and kattaikkuttu, which focus on Draupadi. Guru Gobind Singh and his Kavi Darbar created their own version, though it was lost after the evacuation of Anandpur in 1704. In the 19th century, Maharaja Narinder Singh of Patiala tried to recreate this lost Sikh version.

Outside India, ancient Java developed a version called Kakawin Bhāratayuddha in the 11th century under King Dharmawangsa, later spreading to Bali. This Javanese version includes unique elements such as the Punakawans—Semar, Petruk, Gareng, and Bagong—who are beloved by Indonesian audiences. Spin-off stories like Arjunawiwaha also emerged in ancient Java.

A Kawi version of the Mahabharata exists on Bali, with eight of the eighteen parvas surviving, translated into English by Dr. I. Gusti Putu Phalgunadi.

Derivative literature

Playwright Bhasa wrote two plays based on Mahabharata episodes: Urubhanga (Broken Thigh) about Duryodhana and Bhima, and Madhyamavyayoga (The Middle One) featuring Bhima and his son Ghatotkacha. Modern plays include Andha Yug (The Blind Epoch) by Dharmvir Bharati in 1955, and works by V. S. Khandekar, Girish Karnad, Buddhadeva Bose, Pratibha Ray, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Chinu Modi, and Krishna Udayasankar.

Amar Chitra Katha published a 1,260-page comic book version of the Mahabharata.

In film and television

Many film versions of the Mahabharata have been made in Indian cinema since 1920. Shyam Benegal adapted it in Kalyug, and Prakash Jha’s 2010 film Raajneeti was partly inspired by it. A 2013 animated version holds the record for India’s most expensive animated film.

In 1988, B. R. Chopra created a television series called Mahabharat, directed by Ravi Chopra and shown on Doordarshan. The same year, Shyam Benegal also presented a condensed version in Bharat Ek Khoj. In the Western world, Peter Brook’s nine-hour play premiered in Avignon in 1985, with a five-hour film version also released. A new Mahabharat series aired on STAR Plus in late 2013, produced by Swastik Productions.

A Zee TV series ran from October 2001 to July 2002, featuring Siraj Mustafa Khan as Krishna and Suneel Mattoo as Yudhishthira.

Unfinished projects include one by Rajkumar Santoshi and a planned theatrical adaptation by Satyajit Ray.

Other adaptations

The BBC adapted the Mahabharata into a nine-part radio drama called Mahabharata Now, set in modern-day India with the story focused on a large business conglomerate.

In folk culture

In the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand, villagers perform the Pandav Lila each year between November and February. This ritual re-enactment of Mahabharata episodes includes dancing, singing, and recitation, accompanied by folk instruments like the dhol, damau, and bhankore. Performers sometimes break into spontaneous dance when they feel “possessed” by the spirits of Mahabharata characters.

Jain version

Jain versions of the Mahabharata appear in texts such as Harivamsapurana, Trisastisalakapurusa Caritra, Pandavacharitra, and Pandavapurana. These stories differ from the Hindu versions, with Krishna and Jarasandha being reborn in hell for their actions, while the Pandavas and Balarama become Jain monks and are reborn in heaven. According to Jain belief, Krishna will eventually be reborn as a Tirthankara and attain liberation after his time in hell ends. Krishna and Balarama are shown as cousins of the 22nd Tirthankara, Neminatha, who left his marriage feast to become a monk after feeling empathy for the animals meant for slaughter.

Kuru family tree

This shows the line of royal and family succession, not necessarily the parentage. See the notes below for detail.

Key to Symbols

• Male: blue border
• Female: red border
• Pandavas: green box
• Kauravas: yellow box

Notes

• a**^^^^^****^**: Shantanu was a king of the Kuru dynasty or kingdom, and was some generations removed from any ancestor called Kuru. His marriage to Ganga preceded his marriage to Satyavati.
• b: Pandu and Dhritarashtra were fathered by Vyasa in the niyoga tradition after Vichitravirya's death. Dhritarashtra, Pandu and Vidura were the sons of Vyasa with Ambika, Ambalika and a maid servant respectively.
• c: Karna was born to Kunti through her invocation of Surya, before her marriage to Pandu.
• d: Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva were acknowledged sons of Pandu but were begotten by the invocation by Kunti and Madri of various deities. They all married Draupadi (not shown in tree).
• e: Duryodhana and his siblings were born at the same time, and they were of the same generation as their Pandava cousins.
• f : Although the succession after the Pandavas was through the descendants of Arjuna and Subhadra, it was Yudhishthira and Draupadi who occupied the throne of Hastinapura after the great battle.

The birth order of siblings is correctly shown in the family tree (from left to right), except for Vyasa and Bhishma whose birth order is not described, and Vichitravirya and Chitrangada who were born after them. The fact that Ambika and Ambalika are sisters is not shown in the family tree. The birth of Duryodhana took place after the birth of Karna and Yudhishthira, but before the birth of the remaining Pandava brothers.

Some siblings of the characters shown here have been left out for clarity; this includes Vidura, half-brother to Dhritarashtra and Pandu.

Cultural influence

The Bhagavad Gita is a special part of the Mahabharata where Krishna talks to Arjuna about being a good leader and warrior. It also shares ideas about life and thinking, which many people find helpful. Important leaders like Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, and others used these ideas to help India gain its freedom.

The Mahabharata has also inspired many modern books in Hindi. One famous example is Rashmirathi by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar. This book, written in 1952, focuses on the character Karna and his challenges. It won a big award called the Jnanpith Award in 1972.

Explanatory notes

This section contains explanatory notes that help understand the Mahabharata better. These notes usually clarify terms, names, and ideas mentioned in the epic. They make it easier for readers to follow the story and its deeper meanings.