The Mahabharata Series (cont.)
The Mahābhārata is an amalgam of many authors but traditionally attributed to Vyasa (an immortal)
Composed over centuries (like the Hebrew Bible).
Some think it was begun in the 700s BCE and finished in the 300s BCE. Here is some dates to give perspective:
- 3000-900 BCE ? Kurukshetra War (subject of Mahabharata)
- 1600 BCE Beginning of Greek Civilization
- 1194 BCE Trojan War (subject of Greek Epics)
- 1000 BCE King David (legend)
- 740 Kingdom of Israel falls to Neo-Assyrian Empire
- 586 Jerusalem fall to Nebuchadnezzar
- 551 BCE Confucious born
- 486 BCE Buddha born
- 469 BCE Socrates born
- 327 BCE Alexander the Great reaches India
- 304 BCE Ashoka the Great born
- 27 BCE Founding of Roman Empire
- Longest epic poem in the world
- 90,000 verses: 1.8 million words
- Pages are hard to measure but it is approx. 5,000 pages compared to William Buck’s abbreviated retelling is only about 250 pgs.
- 10 times the length of the Iliad and Odyssey combined
- Divided into 19 “parvas” (sections)
- These scriptures were originally written in Sanskrit.
- “Mahā” means “Great”. Mahātmā means “Great Soul” as in Mahatma Gandhi.
- “Bhārata” is the Hindi term for “Republic of India” and was the name of a legendary king in India history.
This epic is about the civil war of ancient “Bharata” tribe in North India’s area called “Kurukshetra” between 300 BC and 3,000 BC. Like the Hebrew scriptures, the Mahabharata incorporates many other favorite myths of the Hindus.
The Mahabharata is a major text in Hinduism. You can find all the texts at Internet Sacred Text. Hindu scripture is classically divided as below:
- Shruti“that which is heard”