The Mahabharata is the longest poem ever written. Consisting of some hundred thousand lines, this magnificent epic tells of the struggle for supremacy between the five royal Pandava brothers and their hundred cousins, the Kauravas. Upon the outcome of the war between them rests the fate of all living things.

The Pandavas are the sons of the Kuru prince Pandu, who was made king of Hastinapura over his older brother, the blind prince, Dhritarashtra. But Pandu is cursed by a sage, and so gives up the kingship and retires to the forest with his two queens, Kunti and Madri. Dhritarsahtra now becomes King of Hastinapura. In the forest are born the Pandavas – Yudhishthira, Bhima and Arjuna, the sons of Kunti, and the twins, Nakula and Sahadeva, the sons of Madri. Shortly after, Pandu dies; Madri throws herself upon his funeral pyre, leaving her sons in the care of Kunti. Kunti and the five Pandavas return to Hastinapur, where they are warmly welcomed by Dhritarashtra. The five young princes grow up with their hundred cousins, the Kauravas, the sons of Dhritarashtra and his queen, Gandhari. The Pandavas jointly marry the princess Draupadi. Meanwhile, the animosity between the cousins grows into full-fledged enmity, which culminates in the great war fought on the fields of Kurukshetra. At the end of the war, only the five Pandavas, Draupadi, and Krishna, are left alive. The conflict between the cousins, though the heart of the epic, makes up only one part of it and may once have formed a separate poem, the Bharata; the rest of the Mahabharata is made up of myths and legends that weave in and out of the main story.

The origins of the Mahabharata go far back in time and the stories contained within it can be traced at least to three thousand years ago, if not more. Over the centuries, minstrels and storytellers told tales of gods and heroes, warriors, kings and queens, which slowly coalesced to form the Mahabharata. Some time during the first millenium BCE, the epic began to be written down - on palm leaf manuscripts by eager scribes, each scribe embellishing and adorning the tales that he had heard. These early manuscripts, which would have decayed quickly, were copied, re-copied and altered by other scribes to produce a second ‘generation’ of books, which were copied and altered again, and then again. This process of rewriting continued for centuries, and it is likely that Mahabharata reached its present form only around 400 CE. Contained within the epic is the famous conversation between Krishna and Arjuna on the eve of battle. Consisting of some 700 verses, this dialogue forms the Bhagavad Gita, which is arguably the single most important scriptural text of modern Hinduism.

The Mahabharata has been translated into several languages, and told and retold in many forms throughout South and Southeast Asia. Its episodes are portrayed in sculpture, painting, and dance across the region. The Mahabharata was made into a major television serial in India; several film versions of the epic have also been made, including the 1989 film directed by Peter Brooks, and graphic novels, comics and animations based on the epic abound.

The Mahabharata remains hugely popular, and is a living part of Indian culture even today. 

Here are some stories from this great epic.