Background Of The Mahabharata

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The Mahabharata is an ancient, Indian epic that is still studied today by many researchers. The history of this epic has help lead to the Indian culture and beliefs that are still practiced through Hinduism. The background behind the Mahabharata serves as an inspiration to many Indians throughout India. The Mahabharata is combined with the Ramayana which embodies the Indian cultures heritage (Buck xiii). The Mahabharata is a story of the horrific struggle in a battle between two branches of the same Indian ruling family. The epic provides a social, moral, and cosmological background to the story today. No researcher knows when the battle took place. It is thought to have occurred over a series of nine-hundred years between the second century B.C. and the second century A.D. (Buck xiv). The Mahabharata is believed to be preserved in folk tales of the ruling tribes during the battle: Pandavas and the Kurus. During the time of the battle, Aryan tribes were beginning to settle in India. The Aryan …show more content…
It travelled from village to village, from kingdom to kingdom, and even region to region. The Mahabharata began to be recited at festivals and sacrifices honoring the king. The epic’s moral message began to be identified by many powerful leaders around the globe. Gradually, the Mahabharata became a part of world literature that was rewritten and condensed into contemporary terminology (Buck xxi). In India, the Mahabharata is one of the most religious documents that are studied. Even though the epic is a religious document, it is essential in uncovering historically details of the war. Although the work has been translated and may not be the exact original, researchers imagine the original using the details that are given about the war. The Mahabharata tends to have a cumulative effect of a unending dream upon Indians who study it (Rexroth 30). The epic is so long that it seems to readers that the story continues on

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