Mahabharata

Mahabharata (Sanskrit, “Great Story”), longer of the two great epic poems of ancient India; the other is the Ramayana. Although both are basically secular works, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana are ritually recited and are thought to confer religious merit on their hearers.

The central theme of the Mahabharata is the contest between two noble families, the Pandavas and their blood relatives, the Kauravas, for possession of a kingdom in northern India, Kurukshetra. The most important segment of the poem is the Bhagavad-Gita, a dialogue between Krishna, the eighth incarnation of the god Vishnu, and the Pandava hero Arjuna on the meaning of life. It has influenced devout Hindu believers for centuries. The Mahabharata was composed beginning c. 300 bc and received numerous additions until about ad 300. It is divided into 18 books containing altogether about 200,000 lines of verse interspersed with short prose passages. The Harivansha, one of several late appendices to the poem, discusses at length the life and genealogy of Krishna.