Veda Vyasa, Mahabharata

Sudeshna Kar Barua (Independent Scholar - Asia)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 10.3.1.01: Indian Writing and Culture: Ancient and Classical, -600-1750.
Vol. editors: Claire Gallien (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3), Pavan Kumar Malreddy (J W Goethe University of Frankfurt), Delphine Munos (Université de Liège), Mali Skotheim (Ashoka University)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. -500

Places

India (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Epic

Textual History

The Mahabharata, “the story of the great battle of the Bharatas” (Winternitz 1981, 297) with its 100,000 slokas or couplets and long prose passages, is an Indian epic, venerated as a holy text by Hindus in particular. The longest poem ever written in any language, and termed “an entire literature” (Winternitz 1981, 296), the Mahabharata or the “Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty” (Doniger) was probably composed/compiled by the revered seer or Maharshi Krsna Dvaipayana Vyasa or Veda Vyasa.

As one story goes, Veda Vyasa, born perhaps at the end of the Dvapara Yuga or the third eon of the Hindu chronology (Web 1),...

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

12641 words

Citation: Kar Barua, Sudeshna. "Mahabharata". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 November 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23235, accessed 09 June 2026.]