Mahabharata - About the Sanskrit Epic Known as the Mahabharata

Definition: The extraordinarily long* Sanskrit epic The Mahabharata [see Smith for formulaic diction and style], which deals with the Kaurava-Pandava War, may take place in the Ganges Valley in about 900-700 B.C. The earliest extant copy of the Mahabharata dates to somewhere between the 4th century B.C. and the 4th century A.D.

Parpola says The Mahabharata was first recited at a snake sacrifice (sarpasattra) in the presence of King Janemajaya whose ancestors are involved in the epic. Minkowski calls the sattra a frame story. There is controversy over many aspects of the Mahabharata including where the places named were, whether or not figures mentioned are historical, and when such figures would have lived.

• _{"Historical Evolution of the Ram Legend"
  Suvira Jaiswal
  Social Scientist, Vol. 21, No. 3/4 (Mar. - Apr., 1993), pp. 89-97}
  
• _{"Janamejaya's Sattra and Ritual Structure"
  C. Z. Minkowski
  Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 109, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1989), pp. 401-420}
  
• _{"'Mahābhārata' Motifs in the jaina 'Pāṇḍava-Purāṇa'"
  Padmanabh S. Jaini
  Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 47, No. 1 (1984), pp. 108-115}
  
• _{"Πανδαιη and Sītā: On the Historical Background of the Sanskrit Epics"
  Asko Parpola
  Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 122, No. 2, (Apr. - Jun., 2002), pp. 361-373}
  
• _{"Recent Trends in Indian Archaeology
  Suraj Bhan
  Social Scientist, Vol. 25, No. 1/2 (Jan. - Feb., 1997), pp. 3-15}
  
• _{"Winged Words Revisited: Diction and Meaning in Indian Epic"
  John D. Smith
  Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 62, No. 2 (1999), pp. 267-305}
  

* Jaiswal says 24,000 verses, but "Mahbhrata" Oxford Dictionary of Hinduism [Ed. W. J. Johnson. Oxford University Press, 2009] says almost 100,000, divided into 18 books (parvan). The Bhagavad Gita section is itself 700 verses long.

Also Known As: The Great Story of the Descendants of Bharata

Alternate Spellings: Mahābhārata