The Mahabharatha is attributed to the sage Vysa, who also appears as a character in the story.(This is the same Vysa we met in Chapter 14, " Matrix of the Hindu Tradition", who compiled the hymns of the ancient seers, shaping the Veda into its present format). The Mahabratha is based on a war that probably really happened, perhaps around 1500 B.C.E. It was fought at a battlefield called Kurukshetra, which isn't too far from present-day New Delhi.
If the account given in the Mahabharata is literally accurate-okay, that's a big if -it wouldn't be much of an exaggeration to call this real First World War. The story goes that the Indian warriors involved called in help from all their allies, all the way from Turkey in the west to Java in the east. That's pretty outrageous, but not as outrageous as it seems at first.
Remember that India was a major world trade center going back to Sumerian times at the least, and the area around Delhi would have been an important trade capital for international merchants. So there many well have been plenty of foreign leaders with a vested interest in who won the war.
So is this a holy text or a war story? The Mahabharata is considered a scripture because it illustrates in dramatic form how good Hindus should live. The characters are constantly facing tough moral issues and having to make difficult choices. This gives their spiritual mentors an opportunity to advise them about Hindu ethics and spirituality, sometimes for a hundred pages at a stretch ! Then we learn from the wise or foolish decisions of the main characters and the consequences of their actions, what happens when people choose to follow dharma (righteousness) or dharma (unrighteousness).
If the account given in the Mahabharata is literally accurate-okay, that's a big if -it wouldn't be much of an exaggeration to call this real First World War. The story goes that the Indian warriors involved called in help from all their allies, all the way from Turkey in the west to Java in the east. That's pretty outrageous, but not as outrageous as it seems at first.
Remember that India was a major world trade center going back to Sumerian times at the least, and the area around Delhi would have been an important trade capital for international merchants. So there many well have been plenty of foreign leaders with a vested interest in who won the war.
So is this a holy text or a war story? The Mahabharata is considered a scripture because it illustrates in dramatic form how good Hindus should live. The characters are constantly facing tough moral issues and having to make difficult choices. This gives their spiritual mentors an opportunity to advise them about Hindu ethics and spirituality, sometimes for a hundred pages at a stretch ! Then we learn from the wise or foolish decisions of the main characters and the consequences of their actions, what happens when people choose to follow dharma (righteousness) or dharma (unrighteousness).
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