Why You Should Read The Mahabharata

Arjuna requests instruction from Krishna,
from Wellcome Images via Wikimedia Commons

"Poets have told it before, poets are telling it now, other poets shall tell this history on earth in the future."- Volume 1 Book 1 from the J.A.B. van Buitenen translation.

Readers of religious texts may remember reading or hearing about The Bhagavad Gita . What most people don’t realize, is that the Gita is one book of 18 – on section of one of the longest epics.

The Mahabharata– generally meaning “The great Bharata dynasty” – follows the rise and fall of the Kuru Kingdom. Characters weave in and out of the scenes, some are Gods, some are mortals reborn. Stories abound and the world is extensive. One TV serial spanned over 170 hours, and still could not cover it in detail. 

The central story revolves around the growing tensions between two factions of the same family - the cousins Kauravas and the Pandavas. The Kauravas' father Dhritarashtra was blind, and therefore, was unable to be king of the kingdom. His younger brother Pandu then takes the throne. He is later cursed and dies young, and as a result, his two wives have five children through the aid of deities. As Pandu's children, the Pandavas, are considered legitimate heirs. Dhritarashtra's bitterness becomes a driving force for his sons with the help of a scheming brother-in-law. The epic covers the political intrigue and battles that occur up until the final war, the end of everything. The Bhagavad Gita enters just before the war, when many philosophical and religious questions are raised about the reasons behind the war.

But putting the original books and serial reproductions aside, this epic crops up in popular culture in more ways than you can count.

In film, there have been several films either re-enacting The Mahabharata, or they are loosely based on it. The film Rajneeti, a political drama, pulls directly from the conflict between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, who in the original epic, vied for power. Mixed with some elements from the Godfather, it is a fast paced political drama, that has one foot in the modern world, the other in the ancient epic.

Cover of a Amar Chitra Katha comic book.

There have been even more books based on it, such as The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor which is divided into 18 chapters, mirroring the Mahabharata's 18 book structure. Shok K. Banker has also written a series (the Mahabharata Series), with book one named The Forest of Stories. Comic books such as those from Amar Chitra Katha, which inspired the the director S. S. Rajamouli as a youth, have also depicted the stories. His film Baahubali, an action-epic that contains elements from The Mahabharata, became the highest grossing Telugu film of all time. 

Outside of popular fiction, having read at least a summary of Mahabharata will offer insights into popular names (Arjun, Krishna) and images, many of which may appear not only in movies and books, but also in store windows or Indian commercials.

The Mahabharata is long, however, and I realize many people will not have the chance to read the entire 18 book set before going to India or watching a movie. However, if you wants something beyond reading a Wikipedia summary, Peter Brook’s (not quite as long as the original) rendition is available on Youtube. For those who want more information or what a guide to help with reading it, Penguin Books has a companion to the epic.

Just a note: if you aren't sure how to pronounce the names, they should be pronounced exactly as they look. If they are long, read them out slowly. That will help with remembering them, too.