A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.1015

c5.1015

MAHĀ-BHĀRATA. ‘The great (war of the) Bhāratas.’ The great epic poem of the Hindus, probably the longest in the world. It is divided into eighteen parvas or books, and contains about 220,000 lines. The poem has been subjected to much modification and has received numerous comparatively modern additions, but many of its legends and stories are of Vedic character and of great antiquity. They seem to have long existed in a scattered state, and to have been brought together at different times. Upon them have been founded many of the poems and dramas of later days, and among them is the story of Rāma, upon which the Rāmāyaṇa itself may have been based. According to Hindu authorities, they were finally arranged and reduced to writing by a Brāhman or Brāhmans. There is a good deal of mystery about this, for the poem is attributed to a divine source. The reputed author was Krishna Dwaipāyana, the Vyāsa, or arranger, of the Vedas. He is said to have taught the poem to his pupil Vaisampāyana, who afterwards recited it at a festival to King Janamejaya. The leading subject of the poem is the great war between the Kauravas and Pāndavas, who were descendants, through Bhārata, from Puru, the great ancestor of one branch of the Lunar race. The object of the great struggle was the kingdom whose capital was Hastinā-pura (elephant city), the ruins of which are traceable fifty-seven miles north-east of Delhi, on an old bed of the Ganges.