The Books of Mahabharata by Vysa
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Overview: The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Ramayana.
- Besides its epic narrative of the Kurukshetra War and the fates of the Kaurava and the Pandava princes, the Mahabharata contains philosophical and devotional material, such as a discussion of the four "goals of life" or purusharthas (12.161). Among the principal works and stories in the Mahabharata are the Bhagavad Gita, the story of Damayanti, an abbreviated version of the Ramayana, and the Rishyasringa, often considered as works in their own right.
Traditionally, the authorship of the Mahabharata is attributed to Vyasa. There have been many attempts to unravel its historical growth and compositional layers. The oldest preserved parts of the text are thought to be not much older than around 400 BCE, though the origins of the epic probably fall between the 8th and 9th centuries BCE. The text probably reached its final form by the early Gupta period (c. 4th century CE). The title may be translated as "the great tale of the Bharata dynasty". According to the Mahabharata itself, the tale is extended from a shorter version of 24,000 verses called simply Bharata.
The Mahabharata is the longest known epic poem and has been described as "the longest poem ever written". Its longest version consists of over 100,000 shloka or over 200,000 individual verse lines (each shloka is a couplet), and long prose passages. About 1.8 million words in total, the Mahabharata is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, or about four times the length of the Ramayana. W. J. Johnson has compared the importance of the Mahabharata to world civilization to that of the Bible, the works of Shakespeare, the works of Homer, Greek drama, or the Qur’an.
Genre: Classic Fiction, Epic, History, Mythology, Philosophy, War.
- The epic is traditionally ascribed to the sage Vyasa, who is also a major character in the epic. Vyasa described it as being itihāsa (history). He also describes the Guru-shishya parampara, which traces all great teachers and their students of the Vedic times.
The first section of the Mahabharata states that it was Ganesha who wrote down the text to Vyasa’s dictation. Ganesha is said to have agreed to write it only if Vyasa never paused in his recitation. Vyasa agrees on condition that Ganesha takes the time to understand what was said before writing it down.
The epic employs the story within a story structure, otherwise known as frametales, popular in many Indian religious and non-religious works. It is recited by the sage Vaisampayana, a disciple of Vyasa, to the King Janamejaya who is the great-grandson of the Pandava prince Arjuna. The story is then recited again by a professional storyteller named Ugrasrava Sauti, many years later, to an assemblage of sages performing the 12-year sacrifice for the king Saunaka Kulapati in the Naimisha Forest.
The text has been described by some early 20th-century western Indologists as unstructured and chaotic. Hermann Oldenberg supposed that the original poem must once have carried an immense "tragic force" but dismissed the full text as a "horrible chaos." Moritz Winternitz (Geschichte der indischen Literatur 1909) considered that "only unpoetical theologists and clumsy scribes" could have lumped the parts of disparate origin into an unordered whole.
The division into 18 parvas is as follows:
- Parva 01. Adi Parva/The Book of the Beginning:
- Sub-parvas: 001–019. How the Mahabharata came to be narrated by Sauti to the assembled rishis at Naimisharanya, after having been recited at the sarpasattra of Janamejaya by Vaishampayana at Takṣaśilā. The history and genealogy of the Bharata and Bhrigu races is recalled, as is the birth and early life of the Kuru princes.
Parva 02. Sabha Parva/The Book of the Assembly Hall:
- Sub-parvas: 020–028. Maya Danava erects the palace and court (sabha), at Indraprastha. Life at the court, Yudhishthira’s Rajasuya Yajna, the game of dice, the disrobing of Pandava wife Draupadi and eventual exile of the Pandavas.
Parva 03. Vana Parva also Aranyaka-parva, Aranya-parva/The Book of the Forest:
- Sub-parvas: 029–044. The twelve years of exile in the forest (aranya).
Parva 04. Virata Parva/The Book of Virata:
- Sub-parvas: 045–048. The year spent incognito at the court of Virata.
Parva 05. Udyoga Parva/The Book of the Effort:
- Sub-parvas: 049–059. Preparations for war and efforts to bring about peace between the Kurus and the Pandavas which eventually fail (udyoga means effort or work).
Parva 06. Bhishma Parva/The Book of Bhishma:
- Sub-parvas: 060–064. The first part of the great battle, with Bhishma as commander for the Kauravas and his fall on the bed of arrows. (Includes the Bhagavad Gita in chapters 25-42.)
Parva 07. Drona Parva/The Book of Drona:
- Sub-parvas: 065–072. The battle continues, with Drona as commander. This is the major book of the war. Most of the great warriors on both sides are dead by the end of this book.
Parva 08. Karna Parva/The Book of Karna:
- Sub-parvas: 073. The battle again, with Karna as commander.
Parva 09. Shalya Parva/The Book of Shalya:
- Sub-parvas: 074–077. The last day of the battle, with Shalya as commander. Also told in detail, is the pilgrimage of Balarama to the fords of the river Saraswati and the mace fight between Bhima and Duryodhana which ends the war, since Bhima kills Duryodhana by smashing him on the thighs with a mace.
Parva 10. Sauptika Parva/The Book of the Sleeping Warriors:
- Sub-parvas: 078–080. Ashvattama, Kripa and Kritavarma kill the remaining Pandava army in their sleep. Only 7 warriors remain on the Pandava side and 3 on the Kaurava side.
Parva 11. Stri Parva/The Book of the Women:
- Sub-parvas: 081–085. Gandhari, Kunti and the women (stri) of the Kurus and Pandavas lament the dead.
Parva 12. Shanti Parva/The Book of Peace:
- Sub-parvas: 086–088. The crowning of Yudhisthira as king of Hastinapura, and instructions from Bhishma for the newly anointed king on society, economics and politics. This is the longest book of the Mahabharata (shanti means peace).
Parva 13. Anushasana Parva/The Book of the Instructions:
- Sub-parvas: 089–090. The final instructions (anushasana) from Bhishma.
Parva 14. Ashvamedhika Parva/The Book of the Horse Sacrifice:
- Sub-parvas: 091–092. The royal ceremony of the Ashvamedha (Horse sacrifice) conducted by Yudhisthira. The world conquest by Arjuna. The Anugita is told by Krishna to Arjuna.
Parva 15. Ashramavasika Parva/The Book of the Hermitage:
- Sub-parvas: 093–095. The eventual deaths of Dhritarashtra, Gandhari and Kunti in a forest fire when they are living in a hermitage in the Himalayas. Vidura predeceases them and Sanjaya on Dhritarashtra’s bidding goes to live in the higher Himalayas.
Parva 16. Mausala Parva/The Book of the Clubs:
- Sub-parvas: 096. The infighting between the Yadavas with maces (mausala) and the eventual destruction of the Yadavas.
Parva 17. Mahaprasthanika Parva/The Book of the Great Journey:
- Sub-parvas: 097. The great journey of Yudhisthira, his brothers and his wife Draupadi across the whole country and finally their ascent of the great Himalayas where each Pandava falls except for Yudhisthira.
Parva 18. Svargarohana Parva/The Book of the Ascent to Heaven:
- Sub-parvas: 098. Yudhisthira’s final test and the return of the Pandavas to the spiritual world (svarga).
Parva Khila. Harivamsa Parva/The Book of the Genealogy of Hari:
- Sub-parvas: 099–100. This is an addendum to the 18 books, and covers those parts of the life of Krishna which is not covered in the 18 parvas of the Mahabharata.
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