The Mahabharata
Introduction
mahaabhaarata is the largest epic in the history of
mankind. it originates form bhaarata (india) - the land of king
bharata, son of duushyanta and
shakuntalaa. mahaabhaarata is one of the two itihaasa
(historical account) scriptures of
sanaatana dharma (Hindu-dharma), the other being the
raamaayaNa. It describes events
that took place in ancient bhaarata around 5000 BCE (before
common era - also known as B.C.) The main event was the appearance of
Lord krishNa - the 8th avataara (incarnation) of Lord
vishNu towards the end of dwaapara yuga (the penultimate
age among the four ages in a mahaayuga which corresponds to a
complete cycle of the earth's percession). A greater account of
shrii krishNa's life can be found in the shrii
bhagavata puraaNa (one of the 18 puraaNas which are
among the older Hindu scriptures
written after the four vedas). shrii krishNa's
revelation to arjuna also known as shriimada bhagavada geeta ("the song celestial" -
popularly known as geeta) are also in
the mahaabhaarata. In the bhagavada
geeta, bhagawaan krishNa reveals the essence of the
vedas. The puraaNas, mahaabhaarata and the bhagavada geeta are considered
(both-independently and together) by many as a fifth
veda. Among the four most popular sets of Hindu scriptures - the vedas,
puraaNas, itihaasas and tantras, the
itihaasas (raamaayaNa & mahaabhaarata) are the
most popular among Hindus all around the world today.
In conclusion, the salient features of the mahaabhaarata are:
It is a religious, spiritual and historical manual. Many have been
inspired by the message of the geeta -
including Mahatma Gandhi, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan,
Leo Tolstoy, etc. to name a few in this century. It continues tp
affect almost a billions around the world. The theory of karma
and karma-yoga are among the many practical things that
krishNa tells us in His geeta.
The mahaabhaarata was authored by r^shi (Seer, Sage)
vyaasa and written out by bhagawaan Ganesha with one of
his tusks. r^shi vyaasa himself is a prominent figure in the
mahaabhaarata. He was the father of dhr^taraashtra,
paandu and vidur. dhr^taraashtra was the father
of kauravas (continuing the kuru dynasty). paandu
started his own dynasty - the paandu dynasty, and was the
father of the paandavas; the main characters of the
mahaabhaarata, besides shrii krishNa. vidur was
an advisor to these kingdoms.
In its present form, the mahaabhaarata has eighteen
parvas (chapters or books).
- aadi
- sabhaa
- vana
- viraaTa
- udyoga
- bhiishma
- droNa
- karNa
- shalya
- sauptika
- strii
- shaanti
- anushaashana
- aashvamedhika
- aashramavaasika
- mausala
- mahaaprasthaanika
- swargaarohaNa
The above text is from the hindunet.org/mahabharata page as of February 17, 1995. Please refer to links to links
below for corrected version / more recent files.
This attempt at making the epic Mahabharata available on the web in devanagari script
is based on the original
Mahabharata encoding by Prof.
Muneo
Tokunaga of Kyoto, Japan, which were modified and corrected by Prof. John Smith for the CSX version. His Mahabharata Page
has details of the project.
The files have been converted to HTML pages with XDVNG fonts using Avinash Chopade's ITRANS 5.1.
September 24, 2000 01:48:09 PM
shree@hinduweb.org
