MAHABHARAT

study of the its

famous characters

by – Khushal(20BCRN073)
section H
Mahābhārata (/ məhɑːˈbɑːrətə /; Sanskrit:
महाभारतम्, Mahābhāratam, pronounced
[mɐɦaːˈbʱaːrɐt̪ɐm]) is one of the two
largest Sanskrit in India, Sanskrit in India.
It tells of a struggle between two rival
factions in the Battle of Kurukshetra and
the endings of the Kaurava and the princes
of Pāṇḍava and their successors.

It also contains philosophical and

devotional material, such as the discussion
of the four "principles of life" or
puruṣārtha . Among the main works and
stories in the Mahābhārata Bhagavad Gita,
the story of Damayanti, the story of
Shakuntala, the story of Pururava and
Urvashi, the story of Savitri and Satyavan,
the story of Kacha and Devayani, the story
of Rishyasringa and an abridged version of
Rāmāyaṇa, are generally regarded as
works.

Krishna and Arjuna in Kurukshetra, 18-

19th-century painting
Traditionally, the writing of the
Mahābhārata is attributed to Vyāsa. There
have been many attempts to reveal its
historical growth and design stages. Most
of the Mahābhārata was probably compiled
between the 3rd century BCE and the 3rd
century CE, with some very preserved
artifacts dating to less than 400 BCE. The
actual epic occurrence dates to between the
9th and 8th centuries BCE. The text is
probably in its final form in the early
Gupta period (c. 4th century CE).
Mahābhārata is the longest known poem
and has been described as "the longest-
running poem ever written." Its longest
version contains more than 100,000 śloka
or over 200,000 verse lines (each shloka is
a couplet), as well as longer prose pieces.
With a total of 1.8 million words, the
Mahābhārata is almost ten times the length
of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, or
about four times the length of Rāmāyaṇa.
W. J. Johnson compared the Mahābhārata's
significance to the subject of world
civilization with that of the Bible, the
Quran, the works of Homer, the Greek
drama, or the works of William
Shakespeare. According to Indian
tradition, it is sometimes called the Vedic
Five.
Text and structure history
A modern portrait of Vasasa recounting
Mahābhārata to Ganesha in the
Murudeshwara temple, Karnataka.
The epic is traditionally called Vyāsa, who
is also a major character in epic. Vyāsa
described it as itihāsa (Sanskrit: इतिहास,
meaning "history"). He also describes the
Guru-shishya parampara, which traces all
the great teachers and students of the
Vedic era.

The first part of the Mahābhārata states

that it was Ganesha who wrote the text on
Vsasa's call, but this is considered by
scholars to be a later epic translation and
the "Critical Order" does not include
Ganesha at all.

Epic uses a story within a story structure,

also known as frametales, which is popular
in many Indian and non-Indian religious
activities. It is first narrated in Takshashila
by the philosopher Vaiśampāyana, a
disciple of Vyāsa, to King Janamejaya who
was the grandson of Pāṇḍava prince
Arjuna. The story was recounted by a
professional journalist named Ugraśrava
Sauti, many years later, in a group of
scholars who made the 12-year-old
sacrifice of King Saunaka Kulapati in the
Naimiśa Forest.

Sauti repeats the slokas of the

Mahabharata.
The text was described by some
Indologists of the early 20th century as
chaotic and chaotic. Hermann Oldenberg
thought the original poem must have had a
“terrible power” but dismissed the full text
as a “terrible chaos.” Moritz Winternitz
(Geschichte der indischen Literatur 1909)
considered "theologians' only poets and
wise writers." "They could combine parts
of different origins into something random.

Expansion and restructuring

Visa Review Mahabharata

Research on the Mahābhārata has made
great efforts to identify and decipher the
layers within the text. Some aspects of the
present Mahābhārata can be traced back to
the Vedic era. The Mahābhārata
background suggests the origin of the epic
occurred “after the first Vedic period” and
before the first Indian “empire” emerged in
the third century B.C. That this is “a very
distant date from the 8th or 9th century
B.C.” is possible. The Mahābhārata
originated as the oral tradition of the
chariots of horses. It is generally agreed
that "Unlike the Vedas, which must be
kept intact, the epic was a popular work
whose writers would definitely agree with
the changes in language and style," so that
the first 'surviving' parts of this. The
dynamic text is believed to be older than
the original 'external' references we have in
the epic, which may include a reference to
the Pan-language grammar of the 4th
century BCE Aṣṭādhyāyī 4: 2: 56. It is
estimated that the Sanskrit text may have
attained some sort of "final way" in the
early Guptas (c. 4th century CE). Vishnu
Sukthankar, editor of the first critical
edition of the Mahābhārata, commented:
“It does not help to think of rebuilding the
liquid text in its original form, based on
archetype and stemma codicum. So what
can happen? be rebuilding the oldest form
of text that can be accessed based on the
subject of available manuscripts. ”

The Mahābhārata itself (1.1.61)

distinguishes the core part of the 24,000
verses: the proper Bhārata, as opposed to
the second, while Aśvalāyana Gṛhyasūtra
makes the same distinction. At least three
re-translations of the text are often
recognized: Jaya (Victory) with 8,800
verses called Vyāsa, Bhārata and 24,000
verses as quoted by Vaiśampāyana, and
finally Mahābhārata as quoted by
Ugraśrava Sauti more than 300 However,
other scholars, such as John Brockington,
argue that Jaya and Barata refer to the
same text, and claim that Jaya's 8,800
verses in kabidiparvan have been
misinterpreted. The reorganization of the
main text is done after formal
prescriptions, emphasizing numbers 18
and 12. The addition of later portions may
be attributed to the absence of Anuśāsana-
Parva and Virāta Parva from the "Spitzer
manuscript". [27] The oldest surviving
Sanskrit text appears in the Kushan period
(200 CE). [28]

According to another actor in Mb. 1.1.50,

there were three epic versions, starting
with Manu (1.1.27), Astika (1.3, sub-Parva
5), or Vasu (1.57), respectively. These
versions will be accompanied by the
addition of 'private' chat settings. The Vasu
version will leave the frame settings and
start with Visasa's birthday account. The
astronomical translation will add
sarpasattra and aśvamedha material from
Brahmanical texts, introduce the name
Mahābhārata, and identify Vyāsa as the
author of the work. The editors of these
additions were probably Pāñcarātrin
scholars who, according to Oberlies
(1998), were probably able to control the
text until it was edited again. The mention
of Huna in the Bhīṣma-Parva however
seems to indicate that this Parva may have
been dated to about the 4th century. [29]

The sacrifice of the serpent of Janamejaya

Ādi-Parva includes the serpent sacrifice
(sarpasattra) of Janamejaya, explaining its
motive, explaining why all the existing
snakes were destined for destruction, and
why despite this, there are still snakes.
This essence of sarpasattra was often
regarded as an independent myth added to
the Mahābhārata version by "theological
attraction" (Minkowski 1991), and is
regarded as a close connection especially
with the Vedic (Brahmana) books.
Pañcavimśa Brahmana (25.15.3) lists the
chief priests of the sarpasattra among
whom their names are Dhṛtarāṣtra and
Janamejaya, the two main characters of the
sarpasattra of the Mahābhārata, and
Takṣaka, the Mahabhāke name found in
the Mahā3.

Historical context
The history of the Kurukshetra War is
vague. Many historians estimate the date
of the battle of Kurukshetra to Iron Age
India in the 10th century BCE. [44] The
epic setting has a historical precedent in
Iron Age (Vedic) India, where the Kuru
empire was a center of political power
sometime between 1200 and 800 BCE.
[45] The conflict between the kings of the
day could have been inspired by the Jaya,
the foundation on which the Mahābhārata
corpus was built, with a decisive battle,
which was eventually regarded as a
milestone.

Puranic texts present the genealogy

associated with the Mahābhārata narrative.
Proof of Puranas is of two kinds. In the
first case, there is a definite statement that
there were 1015 (or 1050) years between
the birth of Parikshit (Arjuna's grandson)
and the reign of Mahapadma Nanda (400-
329 BCE), which would give about 1400
BCE for the battle of Barata. [46]
However, this may mean an unprecedented
long-term dominion for kings in the
genealogy. [47] The second type is to
analyze the same genealogies in the
Puranas between the times of
Adhisimakrishna (grandson of Parikshit)
and Mahapadma Nanda. Pargiter likewise
estimated 26 generations according to 10
different dynasties and, taking 18 years in
the duration of the reign, reached about
850 BCE in Adhisimakrishna, and thus
about the year 950 BCE by the battle of the
Baratas. [48]

Map of other Painted Gray Ware (PGW)

sites.
BB Lal used a similar method with strong
medieval speculation to date 836 BCE, and
he linked this with archaeological evidence
from the Painted Gray Ware (PGW) sites,
a powerful association between PGW
artefacts and places mentioned in heroes.
[49 ] John Keay confirms this and gives
the year 950 BCE the battle of the Baratas.
[50]
Efforts to locate current events using
archaeoastronomy methods have produced,
depending on which fragments have been
selected and how they are interpreted,
estimates from the end of the 4th to the
middle of the 2nd millennium BCE [51]
The latest date of 4 years precedes the
calculation of the Kali Yuga period, based
on the consolidation of the planet, by
Aryabhata (6th century). The date of
Aryabhata on 18 February 3102 BCE for
the battle of Mahābhārata has spread
according to Indian tradition. Other
sources point to this as the disappearance
of Christ from the Earth. [52] The Aihole
text of Pulse II, dated Saka 556 = 634 CE,
states that 3735 years have passed since
the battle of Barata, setting the date of the
battle of Mahābhārata in 3137 BCE. [53]
[54] Another traditional school of
astronomers and historians, represented by
Vriddha-Garga, Varahamihira (writer of
Bhatsamhita) and Kalhana (author of
Rajatarangini), traced the battle of Barata
653 years after the Kali Yuga period,
dating to 2449 BCE. [55]

Letters
Topic: List of characters in the
Mahabharata
Captions

Ganesha writes Mahabharata over Vasasa's

call.
The main issue of the work is the struggle
for the power of the Hastinapura throne, an
empire ruled by the Kuru family. The two
co-operative branches of the family that
took part in the struggle were Kaurava and
Pandava. Although the Kaurava is the
highest branch of the family, Duryodhana,
the older Kaurava, is younger than
Yudhishthira, the older Pandava. Both
Duryodhana and Judas Iscariot claim to be
the first in line to take the throne.

The struggle culminates in the great battle

of Kurukshetra, in which the Pandavas
finally conquer. This war presents complex
conflicts of friendship and friendship,
situations of family loyalty and work that
precede what is right, and dialogue.

The Mahābhārata itself concludes with the

death of Krishna, as well as the subsequent
end of his lineage and the ascension of the
Pandava brothers to heaven. It also marks
the beginning of the Hindu era of Kali
Yuga, the fourth and final period of
humanity, in which the great values and
ideals have been shattered, and human
beings have striven for the complete
destruction of virtue, morality, and virtue.

Older generations

Shantanu woos Satyavati, a female

fisherman. The painting is by Raja Ravi
Varma.
Ancestor of King Janamejaya Shantanu,
king of Hastinapura, has a temporary
marriage to the goddess Ganga and has a
son, Devavrata (later called Bhishma, a
great warrior), who becomes a visible heir.
Many years later, when King Shantanu
goes hunting, he sees Satyavati, the
daughter of a chief fisherman, and asks his
father for his hand. The father refuses to
consent to the marriage unless Shantanu
promises to make any future son of
Satyavati king at his death. To solve his
father's problem, Devavrata agrees to
relinquish his right to the throne. Just as
the fisherman is not sure of the prince's
children who honor the promise,
Devavrata also makes a vow of celibacy
for the rest of his life to keep his father's
promise.

Shantanu has two sons of Satyavati,

Chitrāngada and Vichitravirya. After
Shantanu's death, Chitrangada becomes
king. You live a very short life without
incident and you die. Vichitravirya, a
young son, rules Hastinapura. Meanwhile,
the King of Kāśī arranges the swayamvara
for his three daughters, neglecting to invite
the royal family of Hastinapur. To arrange
for the wedding of young Vichitravirya,
Bhishma visits the swayamvara of three
princesses Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika,
uninvited, and continues to kidnap them.
Ambika and Ambalika agreed to marry
Vichitravirya.

The old princess Amba, however,

informed Bhishma that she wished to
marry the king of Shalva Bhishma whom
they defeated in their swayamvara.
Bhishma allows her to go and marry the
king of Shalva, but Shaliva refuses to
marry him, still wise about his humiliation
of Bhishma. Amba then returns to marry
Bhishma but refuses because of her vow of
celibacy. Amba becomes angry and
becomes Bhishma's worst enemy
Notes

a: Shantanu was the king of the Kuru tribe

or kingdom, and some generations were
removed from any ancestor called the
Kuru. Her marriage to Ganga preceded her
marriage to Satyavati.
b: Pandu and Dhritarashtra were born to
Vasasa in the tradition of niyoga after the
death of Vichitravirya. Dhritarashtra,
Pandu and Vidura were the sons of Vasasa
and Ambika, Ambalika and maids
respectively.
c: Karna was born to Kunti at her request
to Surya, before she married Pandu.
d: Judiththira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and
Sahadeva were known sons of Pandu but
were born to the worship of Kunti and
Madri of various gods. They all married
Draupadi (who can be seen in the tree).
e: Duryodhana and his siblings were born
at the same time, and were of the same
generation as their Pandava cousins.
f: Although the succession after the
Pandavas was a descendant of Arjuna and
Subhadrara, it was Judithish and Draupadi
who ascended the Hastinapura throne after
the great war.
The birth order of the siblings is well
illustrated in the family tree (from left to
right), with the exception of Vasasa and
Bhishma whose unspecified birth plans, as
well as Vichitravirya and Chitrangada
were born after them. The fact that
Ambika and Ambalika are sisters is not
indicated in the family tree. Duryodhana's
birth took place after the birth of Karna,
Judith and Bima, but before the birth of the
remaining Pandava brothers.

Some of the siblings of the characters

shown here have been left out to be clear;
these include Chitrāngada, Vichitravirya's
older brother. Vidura, brother of
Dhritarashtra and Pandu.
Cultural influence
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna explains to
Arjuna his duties as a hero and prince and
elaborates on various Yogic philosophies
[105] and Vedantic, with examples and
similes. This has led to the Gita being
often described as a brief guide to Hindu
philosophy and a practical, independent
guide to life. [106] In modern times,
Swami Vivekananda, Netaji Subhas
Chandra Bose, Bal Gangadhar Tilak,
Mahatma Gandhi and many others use the
text to help promote the Indian liberation
movement. [107] [108]

It also promoted several works of modern

Hindi literature, such as the Rashmirathi of
Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, a Mahabharata
translation based on Karna and his
arguments. It was written in 1952, and
won the prestigious Jnanpith Award in
1972.
The Mahabharata, one of the most
important Hindu poems, tells of the life
and deeds of a few generations of the
ruling dynasty called the Kuru clan. [7]
Central to that conference is the account of
the battle between the two rival families in
this nation. [8] Kurukshetra (literally
"Kurus territory"), was a battlefield where
the war, known as the Kurukshetra War,
was fought. Kurukshetra is also known as
"Dharmakshetra" ("field of Dharma"), or
garden of righteousness. The first
Mahabharata states that this place was
chosen because the sin committed on this
earth was forgiven because of the sanctity
of the earth. [9]
The Kuru territories were divided into two
parts and ruled by Dhritarashtra (with
Hastinapura's capital) and the Pandavasan
Judith (with his capital at Indraprastha). A
quick quarrel between the Kauravas (sons
of Dhritarashtra) and the Pandavas arose in
a dice game, which Duryodhana subtly
won, forcing his Pandava cousins to
transfer all their land to Kauravas
(Hastinapura) and "go into exile" for
thirteen years. The conflict escalated into a
major war when Duryodhana, out of envy,
refused to return the Pandavas to their
post-deportations as previously decided,
because Duryodhana denied that they were
found during the exile, and that their
empire did not exist. agreed upon. [citation
needed]
History and dating

The average seryāvarta estimate during the

Vedic period is late (c. 1100-500 BCE).
Aryavarta was confined to northwestern
India and west of the Ganges plain, while
Greater Magadha east was inhabited by
non-Vedic Indo-Aryans, resulting in
Jainism and Buddhism. [10] [11]

A modern bronze statue of the Chariot

with Lord Krishna and Arjuna during the
battle of Kurukshetra.
Follow-up texts
The history of the Kurukshetra War is
subject to scholarly debate and
controversy. [1] [2] [3] It is possible that
the War of the Ten Kings, mentioned in
the Rigveda, may have "formed the
'nucleus' of the story" of the Kurukshetra
war, although it was greatly expanded and
transformed into a Mahabharata account
making the Mahabharata version very
popular. questionable history. [4] Although
the Kurukshetra War is not mentioned in
Vedic literature, its prominence in later
publications has led British Indologist AL
Basham, writing in 1954, to conclude that
there was a great war in Kurukshetra "that
grew into titanic proportions, becoming the
basis for the story. of India, the
Mahabharata. " Acknowledging that later
“generations regarded it as a sign of the
end of the system of things,” he suggested
that instead of a civil war, it might be a
tumultuous commemoration of the
conquest of the Kurus by a Mongol tribe
from the hills. "He found it to be a failure
on the part of the historian and set out war
on the ninth century BCE based on
archaeological evidence and" other
evidence in Brahman's own writings to
show that it could not have been much
earlier. "[12] [note 1]

Puranic texts present genealogies

associated with the Mahabharata narrative.
Proof of Puranas is of two kinds. In the
first case, there is a definite statement
[where?] That there were 1015 years (or
1050) between the birth of Parikshit
(Arjun's grandson) and the reign of
Mahapadma Nanda, usually from 382
BCE, which would give an estimate. about
1400 BCE at the battle of Barzillai. [14]
However, this may mean an unprecedented
long rule of kings in the genealogy. [15]

The second type is to analyze the same

genealogies in the Puranas between the
times of Adhisimakrishna (grandson of
Parikshit) and Mahapadma Nanda. Pargiter
accordingly estimates 26 generations
according to 10 different lists of kings and
lasts 18 years in the middle of the reign,
reaching as far back as 850 BCE in
Adhisimakrishna and thus about the year
950 BCE in the Baratas war. [16]

Expert dating
Despite the lack of data access, efforts
have been made to provide a historical date
for the Battle of Kurukshetra. The existing
Mahabharata text went through many
stages of development, and in particular it
is part of the period between c. 500 BCE
and 400 CE. [17] [18] [note 2] Within the
Mahabharata framework, the historical
kings Parikshit and Janamejaya emerged
prominently as deputies of the Kuru
family, [20] and Michael Witzel concluded
that he was a general. The epic setting has
a historical precedent in Iron Age (Vedic)
India, where the Kuru empire was the
center of political power sometime
between 1200 and 800 BCE. [20]
According to Professor Alf Hiltebeitel, the
Mahabharata is actually a myth. [21]
Indian historian Upinder Singh wrote:

That a bitter war between the Pandavas

and the Kauravas has occurred cannot be
confirmed or disproved. There may have
been some minor conflicts, which turned
out to be a major battle between the bad
guys and the poets. Some historians and
archaeologists have suggested that this
conflict likely occurred about 1000 BCE.
[2]
According to Finnish scholar Asko
Parpola, war may have occurred during the
latter phase of the Painted Gray Ware,
about 750-350 BCE. [22]

Popular culture and astrology

Popular tradition holds that war marked
the conversion of Kali Yuga and thus came
to 3102 BCE. Here are some suggestions
that have been put forward:

Vedveer Arya gives the date 3162 BCE, by

distinguishing between Śaka and Śakanta
Eras and applying the 60-year reform to
the date given by the famous tradition and
based on the Aihole inscription. [23]
P. V. Holey refers to the date dated 13
November 3143 BCE using the position of
the planets and calendar systems.
K. Sadananda, based on the translation
work, states that the Battle of Kurukshetra
began on November 22, 3067 BCE
B. N. Achar used planetarium software to
argue that the Mahabharata War took place
in 3067 BCE. [24]
S. Balakrishna concluded the day of 2559
BCE in a lunar month