Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-cx56b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-03T16:27:46.639Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

War in the Mahabharata

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Extract

The Mahabharata, composed in sanskrit, is generally described as an epic. Other sanskrit texts refer to it occasionally as a kavya, or poem, and more often as an itihasa, which literally means “thus indeed it was,” suggesting an element of history. As with many early epics, it carries a consciousness of history but does not claim historicity. It evokes a past society of clans and narrates the events that bound them together or tore them asunder, focusing on the actions of those regarded as heroes.

Type
Correspondents at Large
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Kosambi, D. D.Social and Economic Aspects of the Bhagvad-Gita.” Myth and Reality. Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1962. 1241. Print.Google Scholar
Mahabharata. V. S. Sukthankar et al., eds. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Inst., 1933–66. Print.Google Scholar
Meiland, J. Maha·bhárata Book Nine: Shalya. Vol. 2. New York: New York UP, 2007. Print. Clay Sanskrit Lib.Google Scholar
Sukthankar, V. S. On the Meaning of the Mahabharata. Bombay: Asiatic Soc. of Bombay, 1957. Print.Google Scholar