Biblexika

Mahabharata (Selections)

hinduismsanskrit~400 BCE - 400 CE

Translation: Kisari Mohan Ganguli (1883-1896) (public-domain)

Overview

The Mahabharata is the longest poem in any human language, at nearly 100,000 verses — roughly ten times the combined length of the Iliad and Odyssey and seven times the length of the Bible. Composed in Sanskrit over several centuries beginning around 400 BCE, it tells the story of a catastrophic civil war between two branches of a royal family, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, over the ancient kingdom of Bharata. But this description barely scratches the surface. The Mahabharata is simultaneously an epic narrative, a philosophical encyclopedia, a compendium of mythology, a law code, a collection of devotional poetry, and a theology. Its famous internal maxim captures its scope: 'What is found here may be found elsewhere; what is not found here is found nowhere.'

The central story follows five brothers, the Pandavas, led by the righteous Yudhishthira and aided by the mighty Arjuna, as they struggle against their scheming cousins the Kauravas for the throne of their kingdom. After a catastrophic dice game in which the Pandavas lose everything including their shared wife Draupadi (who is publicly humiliated before the court), they spend thirteen years in exile. On their return, war becomes inevitable. The eighteen-day Battle of Kurukshetra destroys virtually an entire generation of warriors. The aftermath shows the Pandavas ruling a devastated kingdom, haunted by survivor's guilt, until they walk into the Himalayas to die.

The Bhagavad Gita is embedded in the Mahabharata's sixth book, but the whole epic is philosophically rich. Its character studies are among the most morally complex in world literature. The epic refuses easy moral resolutions — it presents the genuine tragedy of doing the right thing in a world where all choices are imperfect.

Bible connections
  • Job (righteous suffering and protest against divine justice)
  • Romans 7 and 9-11 (knowing the good but failing to do it; fate and free will)
  • Numbers and Deuteronomy (wilderness formation before promised restoration)
  • Job 38-42 and Ezekiel 1 (divine theophany overwhelming human questioning)
Key terms
dharma– cosmic and moral order; righteous duty specific to one's social role, time, and circumstances — the Mahabharata's central preoccupation
karma– the moral law of cause and effect across lifetimes; actions (karma) generate consequences that shape future rebirths
nishkama karma– desireless action — the Bhagavad Gita's prescription for acting rightly without attachment to the results, avoiding both inaction and selfish action
parva– book or section of the Mahabharata; the text's 18 parvas (plus the Harivamsa supplement) each cover distinct narrative or thematic material
Did you know?

A famous Sanskrit saying declares: 'Whatever is in the Mahabharata may be found elsewhere; whatever is not in the Mahabharata is nowhere.' Peter Brook's nine-hour theatrical adaptation toured the world in the 1980s to international acclaim, and the 1988 Indian television serial was watched by an estimated 100 million viewers — one of the largest audiences in television history.