Dharma in the Mahabharata Essay

PRESENT TIMES Mahabharata, written by Maharishi Ved Vyas, is one of the two great epics of ancient India. It is one of the greatest stories ever told and is undoubtedly one of the most vast, vivid and detailed epics of the world. It is not a story, it is not a poem not even an epic but rather a philosophy about humans, the evolution of their thought process and the battles of their interests. The account holds true and relevant even in current times. It is said that what exists in Mahabharata,…

translated as “Song of the Lord”. This place was the setting of the Mahabharata. The Author compares the Gita to the Sermon on the mount saying that both have an “immediacy” and both are timeless. They describe getting off the train and taking in the scenery. His companion tells him to imagine the events that took place there, including Krishna giving Arjuna the words of the Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita is a part of the Mahabharata credited to the Sage Ved Vyasa, but there is a legend that…

It could be said, Bharati is practicing historiography, what Benjamin regards as, from the margins. It could be argued that Bharati regards the events of Mahabharata as the source events and demonstrates the historiography from the margins by reworking the events in his play. The addition of such marginal characters serves his purpose well. This could also be interpreted as Bharati’s critique of history of…

The Mahabharata is the oldest of the great epics of Hindu literature and is the longest poem ever written, with 100,000 stanzas arranged in 18 books. The work is actually a compilation of material from a number of sources from different periods, and there may have…

Submission and Action of Religious Heroines Written expressly to convey the main beliefs and principles of their respective religions, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, and the Hebrew Bible are composed as epic histories and biographies of mythic figures, whose lives act as fables to teach these principles to the educated, uninitiated believers. In most cases, these fables are told through a heroic male character, blessed by God or a god, who fulfills a destiny defined by his relationship with…

chapters eight and nine, and Vyasa’s The Mahabharata, In the Beginning and The Ring & the Well, are primary forms of epic poems telling the grand tales of Ulysses and Drona, respectfully. Both authors tell of divine deities of the culture, glory of war, justice, and power. Two historically revered epic poems, the Odyssey and The Mahabharata, espouse very similar yet also very different values of status and heroism that provide insight into…

Critical Analysis Considered to be India’s greatest epic, there are few uninspired by the Mahabharata. But, the Mahabharata is also a narrative which has its own share of criticisms. A very noticeable aspect is the double standard held by many formidable characters such as Bhīma, Drona, Arjuna, and many others. While there is no doubt that the good they performed certainly outweighs the evil it is important that they not be portrayed as infallible- for legends as they are, they are also human.…

The television series, Mahabharat, is a 94 episode Hindi series that is based on the Hindu epic, Mahabharata. Although there are 94 episodes in this entire television series, I will only be focusing on episode 72 which corresponds to the near beginning of the Bhagavad Gita text. Episode 72 of the Mahabharat television series begins with a short dialogue between the blind king, Dhritarashtra, and his advisor, Sanjaya. Dhritarashtra asks Sanjaya to tell him what had happened on the battlefield…

moksha, dharma and advaita. In Sanskrit, moksha means ‘release’ from the cycle of birth and death (samsara) - it is freedom from attachment to materialism in life and detachment from the human world. There are multiple ways to attain moksha, which will be discussed in this essay. Dharma, in sanskrit, means ‘duty’ or ‘ethics’- these are the duties and morals followed by Hindus either pertaining to their individual selves (visesa dharma) or to the bigger world (samanya dharma). Following dharma…

separated into two groups of cousins. The Kauravas are supposed to be the bad or evil cousins, and the Pandavas are supposed to be the good cousins. Both sides have good and bad people. The most famous part of the Mahabharata is known as the Bhagavad Gita, which explains the importance of Dharma or religious duty. The basic plot of the Bhagavad Gita is the god Krishna explaining to Arjuna why he needs to go to war. Arjuna at first sees the death and pain brought on by war and doesn’t want to…