Mahabharata

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Editor: Anant Pai
Author: B.R. Bhagawat
Illustrator: Subhash Tendle

Mahabharata is the world's longest epic, of nearly a hundred thousand verses in the ancient language, Sanskrit. "What is here may occur elsewhere; what is not here would not be anywhere", declares the epic. The great mass of the epic is built around a core narrative about the family of Kurus, said to be of the Lunar race.

Kauravas ('of the Kuru line') who numbered a hundred, and Pandavas ('sons of Pandu') who were five, were cousins. The father of Kauravas was elder to Pandu, but blind. Pandavas asked for their share of the kingdom which the Kauravas denied at first. The elders prevailed on them to give five towns to the Pandavas. The virtuous Pandavas made a prosperous kingdom of them.

The Kauravas grew jealous and tricked the Pandavas to a game of dice in which the Pandavas lost everything. The Pandavas had to go in exile for twelve years and keep in hiding for a year more. On return from exile, they asked for their kingdom, which the Kauravas refused to give back. Krishna tried hard to mediate, but failed. The Pandavas decided on war. The Kauravas and all their supporters were defeated in the eighteen-day war that followed.