MAHABHARATA

(SanskritGreat Epic of the Bharata Dynasty) one of the two major Sanskrit epics of India, valued for its high literary merit and its religious inspiration. The Mahabharata consists of a mass of legendary and didactic material surrounding a central heroic narrative that tells of the struggle for supremacy between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas. Together with the second major epic, the Ramayana (Romance of Rama), it is an important source of information about the evolution of Hinduism during the period about 400 BCAD 200. Contained within the Mahabharata is the /a>Bhagavadgita (q.v.; Song of the Lord), which is the single most important religious text of Hinduism. The poem is made up of almost 100,000 coupletsits length thus being about seven times that of the Iliad and the Odyssey combineddivided into 18 parvans, or sections, to which has been added a supplement entitled Harivamsa (Genealogy of the God Hari, i.e., Krishna-Vishnu). Authorship of the poem is traditionally ascribed to the sage Vyasa, although it is more likely that he compiled existing material. The traditional date for the war that is the central event of the Mahabharata is 1302 BC, but most historians prefer a later date. The poem reached its present form about AD 400. The story's conflict begins when because of his blindness, Dhrtarastra, the elder of two princes, is passed over as king on his father's death in favour of his brother Pandu. Dhrtarastra later assumes power when Pandu renounces the kingship to become a religious hermit. The sons of Pandu, the five Pandava brothers (Yudhisthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva), grow up in the court along with their cousins, the Kauravas (descendants of Kuru, a name applicable to both families, but applied for distinction to the sons of Dhrtarastra). Because of the enmity and jealousy that develops between the cousins, the Pandavas are forced to leave the kingdom at the time of their father's death. During their exile the five jointly marry Draupadi and meet their cousin Krishna, who remains their friend and companion thereafter. They return to experience some years of prosperity in a divided kingdom but are again forced to retire to the forest for 12 years when the eldest brother, Yudhisthira, loses everything in a game of dice with the eldest of the Kauravas. The feud between the Kauravas and Pandavas culminates in a great series of battles on the field of Kuruksetra (north of modern Delhi, in Haryana state). All the Kauravas are annihilated, and, on the victorious side, only the five Pandava brothers and Krishna survive. Krishna dies at the hands of a hunter who mistakes him for a deer, and the five brothers, along with Draupadi and a dog who joins them (Dharma, the god of justice, in disguise), set out for Indra's heaven. One by one they fall on the way, and Yudhisthira alone reaches the gate of heaven. After further tests of his faithfulness and constancy, he is finally reunited with his brothers and Draupadi to enjoy perpetual bliss. The feud constitutes little more than a fifth of the total work and may once have formed a separate poem, the Bharata. Interwoven with its episodes are the romance of Nala and Damayanti; the legend of Savitri, whose devotion to her dead husband persuades Yama, the god of death, to restore him to life; descriptions of places of pilgrimages; and many other myths and legends. Above all, the Mahabharata is an exposition on dharma (codes of conduct), including the proper conduct of a king, of a warrior, of a man living in times of calamity, and of a person seeking to attain emancipation from rebirth. The several centuries during which the epic took shape were a period of transition from the religion of Vedic sacrifice to the sectarian, internalized worship of later Hinduism, and different sections of the poem express varying and sometimes contradictory beliefs. Some sections, such as the Narayaniya (a part of Book XIII), the Bhagavadgita (Book VI), the Anugita (Book XIV), and the later supplement, the Harivamsa, are important sources of early Vaisnavite thought. There Krishna is identified with Lord Vishnu, and other avataras (incarnations) are also described. The Mahabharata story has been retold in written and oral vernacular versions throughout South and Southeast Asia and has always enjoyed immense popularity. Its various incidents have been portrayed in stone, notably in sculptured reliefs at Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom in Cambodia, and in Indian miniature paintings.