Mahabharata
today has 100,000 slokas and is believed to be written by Sage Veda
Vyasa, but in reality it was narrated by him and written by Lord
Ganesha.When first narrated, it had only 8,800 slokas and Mahabharata
original name was ‘Jaya‘ (Jayam) as written by Ganesha.
Then Vyasa’s disciple Vaisampayana narrated this story to King Janamejaya (Pariskshit’s son and Abhimanyu’s grandson) along with additional and elaborated stories, during Sarpa Yaagam (A Yagna that is performed to bring snakes to extinction by letting them burn in flames as a revenge against Takshaka, a snake who killed King Parikshit)This made it expand to 24,000 slokas and was named ‘Vijaya (Vijayam)‘ and then renamed it as ‘Bharata‘.
In next generation, Ugrasravas, belonged to the Suta caste, who were typically the bards of Puranic literature, narrated this story to sage Saunaka and other sages in Naimisa forest.Ugrasravas (also named as Suta muni or Suta Goswami) was the son of sage Lomaharshana and belong to disciple chain to Vyasa.The full 100,000 verses of the Mahabharata was completed several centuries later by addition of many stories and was finally named as ‘Mahabharata‘.
Also few inclusions like ‘description/creation of caste system’ , ‘women, sinners and lower castes’ being treated similarly etc were according to the society in those years.Infact, both Bhagavad Gita and Vishnu Sahasranamam became popular after Adi Shankaracharya wrote commentaries on them in 8th century AD.The Mahabharata probably reached its final form by the early Gupta period (c. 4th century) when kings ordered complete rewriting of all puranas to preserve them for future generations.Unlike the Vedas, which have to be preserved letter-perfect, the epic was a popular work whose reciters would inevitably conform to changes in language and style.So, many additions were made to it by writers of that generation.Mention of the Huna in the Bhishma-parva however appears to imply that this Parva may have been edited around the 4th century AD during golden age of Gupta Empire.
Then Vyasa’s disciple Vaisampayana narrated this story to King Janamejaya (Pariskshit’s son and Abhimanyu’s grandson) along with additional and elaborated stories, during Sarpa Yaagam (A Yagna that is performed to bring snakes to extinction by letting them burn in flames as a revenge against Takshaka, a snake who killed King Parikshit)This made it expand to 24,000 slokas and was named ‘Vijaya (Vijayam)‘ and then renamed it as ‘Bharata‘.
In next generation, Ugrasravas, belonged to the Suta caste, who were typically the bards of Puranic literature, narrated this story to sage Saunaka and other sages in Naimisa forest.Ugrasravas (also named as Suta muni or Suta Goswami) was the son of sage Lomaharshana and belong to disciple chain to Vyasa.The full 100,000 verses of the Mahabharata was completed several centuries later by addition of many stories and was finally named as ‘Mahabharata‘.
Also few inclusions like ‘description/creation of caste system’ , ‘women, sinners and lower castes’ being treated similarly etc were according to the society in those years.Infact, both Bhagavad Gita and Vishnu Sahasranamam became popular after Adi Shankaracharya wrote commentaries on them in 8th century AD.The Mahabharata probably reached its final form by the early Gupta period (c. 4th century) when kings ordered complete rewriting of all puranas to preserve them for future generations.Unlike the Vedas, which have to be preserved letter-perfect, the epic was a popular work whose reciters would inevitably conform to changes in language and style.So, many additions were made to it by writers of that generation.Mention of the Huna in the Bhishma-parva however appears to imply that this Parva may have been edited around the 4th century AD during golden age of Gupta Empire.
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