This is a mirror site for
Aneesh Patel's Hypertext Mahabharata; for
complete sets of images, links and future revisions please visit
the original site
THE HYPERTEXT MAHABHARATA
Welcome to my very own Mahabharata page.
This site contains a hypertext version of the
Sanskrit epic, The Mahabharata. Possibly the world's longest poem, the
Mahabharata is the story of an intense rivalry between two groups of cousins
that ends in an apocalyptic war, in which the rules of warfare and law
are broken often by both sides. That is only the bare-bones skeleton: the
epic is full of digressions into subplots, philosophical reflections, and
stuff added centuries later. The site is very much under construction.
Right now, the text is adequate, though sketchy. Large portions of the
plot have been left out in the interest of compactness and readability.
I plan to add more to each section, and eventually, it will be in the form
of 18 "books" or parts (parvas to use the Sanskrit term), just like
the ancient epic itself.
Acknowledgement
Before I say anything more, I would like to acknowledge
three authors' versions of the epic that I have used to create the text.
Of the three, the Van Buitenen is by far the most
scholarly. It is also closest to the original epic, because it is a translation
from the original Sanskrit, whereas the other two works are not. Amazingly,
there is no complete translation of the entire Mahabharata in any Western
language.
A Brief Description of the epic
When was it first created?
Good question. The oral tradition in which travelling
bards retold the story, began sometime between 2000 and 1000 BC. The entire
epic poem was not written down before 500-300 BC.
Clearly the Mahabharata is a case of multiple
authorship: because of the long oral tradition, there are many different
versions of each story. Different parts have been added or removed at different
times. For instance, it is quite evident that brahmanical scholars added
pieces justifying the caste system and the high status of brahmins. Some
believe that the original authors were sympathetic to one side (the Kauravas),
and that later authors were sympathetic to the other side (the Pandavas);
however, this is all conjecture, so I'll leave it at that.
Within the epic itself, one of the characters,
Vyasa
claims to be the author. The story goes that Vyasa needed a scribe to write
down his poem as he recited it. So, he
invoked the elephant-headed god "who removes obstacles"--Ganesha--to
be his scribe.
Religion in the Mahabharata
It reflects many philosophical tenets of Hinduism.
One part of the epic in particular--the Bhagavad
Gita (the "Song of the Lord")--is a religious and philosophical
text used by many Hindus even today. There are many translations of the
Gita in English. The Gita has had a
powerful impact on quite a few thinkers, from the West as well as from
India.
Why I made this site
I looked at other web pages about the Mahabharata,
and, by and large, they were exclusively focused on religious aspects of
it, very scholarly, non-literary, or did not take advantage of the fact
that its meandering, digression-prone, structure with many interconnecting
stories, is almost ideally suited to hypertext. This is however only a
first attempt. Feel free to email me with comments and suggestions. (Sometime
soon, I'll put up some questions in this section of the site so you know
what kinds of comments I'm looking for)
Begin the epic
journey.
You may want to look at the Table
of Contents before you begin. Want to find
out more about the Mahabharata?
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
Please note that ALL the black and white pictures
on this site were scanned from William
Buck's version of "The Mahabharata" available from the University
of California Press. The illustrations on this site are from the same version
(illustrations
by Shirley Triest). I have not created them: I am
NOT trying to take credit for someone else's work!