BHARATA (MAHABHARATA) 122 BHARATA (MAHABHARATA)

Parva and three in AnuSasana Parva. All the pieces are accretions came to be known as Bharatasamhita. Suta statements realised souls. The of the is by style poetry who narrated this story to Saunaka and others at the simple and the method of presentation lively. At times forest of Naimisa added some more matter to the the of the extends to the horizon. imagination poet up Bharatasamhita and made it larger. The present Though there is a flow of spiritualism throughout the Mahabharata is this expanded edition. matter is mundane. purely The following facts prove that the Mahabharata has is believed to be the 4) Authorship. Bhagavan Vyasa thus passed through three stages of evolution: author of Mahabharata. was a of the He contemporary 1 This book is : ) known by three names Jaya, Bharata- Pandavas the Kauravas. of the events of the and Many samhita and Mahabharata. 1 Mahabharata were personally witnessed by Vyasa. He There is a reference to the three of the book took three years to write this book. The 2) parts following 2 in Sloka 1 of Adi Parva. llokas will support the above: 66, Chapter Kururaja kulasthanam 3) There are three different opinions regarding the vrttarh total of in Drsjam ca yatsthitam / number Slokas the Mahabharata. According Tatsarvarh bhagavan Vyaso to UgraSravas there are 8800 verses, according to Vyasa Varnayamasa Bharate. // 24000 verses and according to another statement a 3 (Padma purana) lakh of verses.

Tribhirvarsaih sadotthayi 4) The narration appears to be of three different kinds, Krsn.advaipa.yano munih / descriptive, philosophical and oratorical, indicative of Mahabnaratamakhyanam three different authorships. Krtavanidamuttamam. // 5) Suta and VaiSampayana have made accretions to (Sloka 55, Chapter 62, Adi Parva) . the original work 'Jaya' of Vyasa. The Varaha Purana states that Vyasa composed the Viewed with these facts we are led to believe that Mahabharata at a period when the end of Dvapara has the essence of Maha- yuga merged with the dawn of the Kaliyuga. The Vyasa composed only very bharata 8800 slokas and that work was Bhagavata states that Sri Krsna passed away on the comprising known as as referred first first day of Kaliyuga. The Bhagavata is devoted to 'Jaya' to in the invocatory verse of the added a few verses of admire and praise the life of Sri Krsna. This book also epic. Vaisampayana his own and the number to and the is written by Vyasa. This s"loka found in the first Chap- brought 24,000 gave ter of Adi Parva clears the doubt: book the name of 'Bharatasamhita'. It was Suta who made many more additions and made the book so big Vasudevasya mahatmyarh as to fetch it the name of 'Maha.bha.rata'. The epic Pandavanarh ca satyatam / which is now current among us contains a lakh of Durvrttarh Dharttarastranam verses and it took perhaps centuries to get this transfor- Uktavan Bhagavanrsih. // mation of the book from 'Jaya' to 'Mahabharata'. The original name of the Bharata which Vyasa compos- 6) Period of publication. The Kali Varsa starts from ed was 'Jaya'. In the first Chapter of Adi Parva is this 3102 B.C. The great Mahabharata war was fought at sloka to support this statement: a period when the end of Dvapara yuga merged into Narayanarh namaskrtya the dawn of Kali yuga as could be gathered from the Naram caiva narottamam/ following verse from the epic: Devirh Sarasvatim caiva Antare caiva samprapte Tato Jayamudirayet// Kalidvaparayorabhut / After the death of the Pandavas and the Kauravas the Samantapancake yuddham disciples of Vyasa, Sumantu, Jaimini, Paila, Suka and Kurupandavasenayoh. // VaiSampayana gave this book great publicity. They (Sloka 13, Chapter 2, Adi Parva) . wrote books based on this story of Bharata of which So it can be deduced that the great war was fought only the 'Bharata' of Vaisampayana and the ASva- round about 3102 B.C. Dhrtaraslra lived for eighteen medha Parva of Jaimini are now available. years after the great battle and the Pandavas ruled the Vyasa's Bharata was first expounded by Vaisampayana country for 36 years. (Stri Parva, M.B.). It was when at the Sarpa-satra of Janamejaya. At the request of Sri Krsna died that the Pandavas ended their rule Janamejaya, VaiSampayana added some more facts to and commenced the Mahaprasthana. So it can be sur- the original work known then as 'Jaya'. Jaya with the mised that Sri Krsna lived for 36 years after the war.

I (a) Jayo nametihaso'yam 2 Manvadi Bharatam kecid Srotavyo vijigisuna (Sloka 22, Chapter 62, Adi Parva). Astikadi tathapare (b) CaturvimSati sahasrim Tathopari caradanye Gakre bharatasarhhitam Viprah samyagadhiyire. Upakhyanairvina tavad 3 Idam Satasahasrarh tu lokanam pupyakarmanam Bharatam procyate budhaih Upakhyanaih saha jneyamadyarb bharatainuttamam (Sloka 78, Chapter i, Adi ParvaJ. Caturvimsati sahasrim cakre bharatasarhhitam (3) Refer to the Sloka given in para i. Upakhyanairvina tavad bharatarh procyate budhaih Astau slokasahasrani Astau slokasatani ca Ahaih vedmi Suko vetti Sanjayo vetti va na va. (Adi Parva, Chapter i).