A History of Indian Literature v1.c9.s3.3

v1.c9.s3.3

On the other hand, it is comparatively easy to extract *a kernel* from the enormous mass of songs of the Mahābhārata, namely, *the narrative of the battle of the Kauravas and the Pāṇḍavas*, which in any case formed the subject of the actual epic. This shall be done in the following, necessarily short outline. We trace the story of the great fight, taking into consideration also, as far as possible, the important secondary stories referring to the principal heroes. In this we shall not digress into doubtful hypotheses upon the "original" epic, but faithfully follow *the Mahābhārata text now available to us, leaving aside*, for the present, everything which has no reference to the principal narrative.