Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.1428

c7.1428

JAYA XIII. The original name of the Mahābhārata written by Vyāsa. Many of the scholars are of opinion that Vyāsa was not the author of the whole of the Mahābhārata that we see in its present form now. They say that the Bhārata written by Vyāsa consisted only of eight thousand and eight hundred stanzas. That work was named Jaya. To those eight thousand and eight hundred stanzas Vaiśampāyana added fifteen thousand, two hundred stanzas and this great book was given the name Bhārata or Bhārata saṃhitā (Bhārata collection). When Sūta recited this book to other hermits in Naimiśāraṇya the book had a lakh of stanzas. Henceforward the book was called Mahābhārata, (History of classical Sanskrit Literature; Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Chapter 62, Stanza 20).