What is "mahabharata"

n. (alternative spelling of Mahabharata English)

The Mahabharata or Mahābhārata (US ; UK ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Ramayana.

The Mahabharata is an epic narrative of the Kurukshetra War and the fates of the Kaurava and the Pandava princes. It also contains philosophical and devotional material, such as a discussion of the four "goals of life" or purusharthas (12.161). Among the principal works and stories in the Mahabharata are the Bhagavad Gita, the story of Damayanti, an abbreviated version of the Ramayana, and the Rishyasringa, often considered as works in their own right.

Traditionally, the authorship of the Mahabharata is attributed to Vyasa. There have been many attempts to unravel its historical growth and compositional layers. The oldest preserved parts of the text are thought to be not much older than around 400 BCE, though the origins of the epic probably fall between the 8th and 9th centuries BCE. The text probably reached its final form by the early Gupta period (c. 4th century CE). The title may be translated as "the great tale of the Bhārata dynasty". According to the Mahabharata itself, the tale is extended from a shorter version of 24,000 verses called simply Bhārata.

The Mahabharata is the longest known epic poem and has been described as "the longest poem ever written". Its longest version consists of over 100,000 shloka or over 200,000 individual verse lines (each shloka is a couplet), and long prose passages. About 1.8 million words in total, the Mahabharata is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, or about four times the length of the Ramayana. W. J. Johnson has compared the importance of the Mahabharata in the context of world civilization to that of the Bible, the works of Shakespeare, the works of Homer, Greek drama, or the Qur'an.

The Mahbharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India.

Mahabharata or Mahabharat may also refer to:

Mahabharata is a mythological book retold by C. Rajagopalachari. It was first published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in 1958. This book is an abridged English retelling of Vyasa's Mahabharata. Rajaji considered this book and his Ramayana to be his greatest service to his countrymen.

As of 2001, the book had sold over a million copies.

Mahabharata (also known as Amar Chitra Katha's Mahabharata) is a comic adaptation of Indian epic poem Mahabharata. The 42-issue best-selling series by Amar Chitra Katha, Mumbai was illustrated by Dilip Kadam. The team of script writers (took turns to complete the 42 issues) included Kamala Chandrakanth, TMP Nedungadi, Subba Rao, Yagya Sharma, Lopamudra, Mihir Lal Mitra, Sumona Roy, Mohan Swaminathan, Shubha Kandhekar and Margie Sastry.

The Mahabharata is often regarded as one of the most popular title in the history of Amar Chitra Katha. It is also the longest series (42 issue run on an alternative title schedule; from 329-441 [1985-89] in over more than 1300 pages) to have been produced by the ACK. The series was originally planned for 60 albums, but it was later cut short to 42.

Indonesia has a different version of the Mahabharata from the Indian version of Mahabharata in many parts of the story. The Mahabharata was translated into (old) Javanese under the reign of king Dharmawangsa of Medang (r. 990-1006).

It is also known as 'Bharat Yudha' etc. and is often portrayed through the form of Javanese Wayang. A Characteristic feature of the Indonesian Mahabharata is that it gives more autonomy to other characters apart from the main characters - Krishna, Arjuna, Bhisma, Duryodhana. In the Indonesian version of Mahabharata more is said about the character of Shalya etc.

The main characters in Indonesian Mahabharata or Bharat Yudha are:

1. Bisma ( Bhishma - as in Indian Version)- Who is the great grandfather of the Pandawas and Kurawas.
2. King Pandu Dewanata ( Pandu - In Indian Version) Father of the five Pandawas.
3. Destarata ( Dhritrashtra - In Indian Version) Eldest brother of King Pandu Dewanata who is blind and fathers 100 Kurawa brothers.
4. Dewi Kunti ( Kunti - In Indian Version) Mother of Yudistira, Bima and Arjuna and wife of Pandu
5. Gendari ( Gandhari - In Indian Version) mother of Kauravas.
6. Madrim ( Madri - In Indian Version) Mother of the ashwin twins Nakula and Sadewa and wife of Pandu
7. Karna ( Karna - In Indian Version) Illegitimate son of Kunti and the Sun God, Suryadeva and a faithful friend of Duryudana and of evil Kurawas
8. Durna ( Drona - In Indian Version) The great teacher and mahaguru to both the Kurawas and Pandawas
9. Duryudana ( Duryodhana - In Indian Version) Eldest Kurawa brother who wants to be the king and hates the Pandawas.
10. Sangkuni ( Shakuni - In Indian Version) Evil and conspirator. A friend of the Kurwas.
11. Arjuna ( Arjuna - In Indian Version) Third Pandawa brother born of Indra(the War God) skilled archer, and hero of the Mahabharata.
12. Yudistira (Punta Dewa/Dharmawangsa) ( Yudhisthira - In Indian Version) Eldest Pandawa brother, rightful heir to throne of Hastinapura following King Pandu. Born of the God of Dharmadeva, truthful, patient, wise and never angry.
13. Bima ( Bhima - In Indian Version) Second Pandawa brother born of the Wind God, a very strong man with strength of thousands of elephants, a giant
14. Srikandi ( Shikhandi - In Indian Version)elder sisterof draupadi, a warrior princess and a skilled archer,she becomes a man by exchanging her feminity with a yaksha to kill bhisma.
15. Dewi Dropadi ( Draupadi - In Indian Version) Younger sister of Srikandi, married to 5 pandavas after an archery competition, and heroine of the Mahabharata
16. Hastinapura ( Hastinapura - In Indian Version) Original kingdom of the Pandawas and Kurawas
17. Amarta ( Indraprastha - In Indian Version) New kingdom made by the Pandawas
18. Mt Indrakila: The place where Arjuna goes to meditate before the 'Bharata Yudha' or 'War of India' and where he receives his magic bow and arrow the Gendiva.