All knowledge derives from the Mahabharata

If you get bored by the complicated story skip to the end and read my interpretation.

All Indian mythology has context and prologue that is no different for the Mahabharata. It was recited for the first time to humans by Ugrasvas which he heard  at the snake sacrifice of King Janamejaya by Krsna Dvapayana Vyasa.

He recited the tale to an audience of Brahmins who request this knowledge as a reward for their austerities.

He states “Mahabharata is equivalent to the four vedas”.

The great Mahabharata is holy, study of it one from sin.

Ugravas starts by reciting the story of events leading to the Mahabharata.

Janamejaya was cursed by the divine bitch Sarama to fall victim to an unseen danger as his brothers had kicked puppy’s of the divine bitch. Uttanka seeking revenge on taksaka, serpent king complains to Janamejaya that Taksaka was responsible for the death of his father Parikshit who had died in a freak accident.

Janamejaya so plans to wipe out all snakes off the planet at his snake sacrifice.

The story now diverts to questions asked by the Brahmins to Rahu a demon who tried to swallow amrt but his head was cut off by surya and moon, so even still sun and moon are swallowed by Rahu during a eclipse.

At snake Astika son of Janatkaru impresses impresses Jayamejaya and rescues Taksaka’s sacrifice and promises whoever recites this tale is now invulnerable to

Snake bites.

Krsna Dvaipayana vyasa Grandfather of Kauravas and Pandavas who is present at the sacrifice agrees to recite the great story of the Mahabharata. It should be heard by whom who desires victory; it is the supreme instruction on Dharma.

By now you may have realized that the Mahabharata rather than being  a linear narrative is a complex compilation of  events containing hundreds of interesting characters. I have only included events that bear consequence in the immediate consequence of the story and are interesting to read. Characters having a small passing tale in the tale may become titular characters further forward in the story.

 So now we begin with the Mahabharata. Mahabharata is called Mahabharata as it is the story of descendants of Bharata

The story starts with Vasu upicara once conquered all of land but was content in living a life of hermitage. But one night Indra appeared to him and asks him to follow his dharma of a king and celebrate the festival of Indra.

He had a daughter born to a apsara born named Satyawati who used to ferry people across the river. One day a Sage, Parasara comes to her asks to lay with her. She refused as she wanted to remain a virgin and remain true to her father. The sage promised he would restore her virginity and give her the best fragrance in the world. She gave birth to Krsna Dvapayana Vyasa was born that day.

Dharma during that time was prevalent in all forms of life. King casts aside all anger and rule judiciously. Demons defeated by gods in heavens decided to take birth on earth in royal lineages and wrecked all kinds of havoc on earth.
Mother earth asked Brahma who convened a conference of Devtas where Narayan (visnu) agreed to descend to earth time and time again to rid it off demons.


Dushyant a direct descendent of kuru was looking for the great sage Kanva but finds there a beautiful girl who introduces herself as daughter of kanva which surprises Dushyant as who expected the great sage to be celibate. She tells him the story of his birth...
Indra wa sgetting jealous of austerities of great sage Viswamitra feared his sovereignty so sent the apsarasas Menaka who seduced and him and from their love was born Sakuntla who was raised by Kanva.

Dushyant proposes to Sakuntla who agrees only on the condition that their child should Prince regent of his empire. So was born Bharata who becomes a great monarch and from whom the lineage of Bharata is descended.

This part of the book leads us to the main characters of the Mahabharata. This part of the story somehow to me bears no importance in the understanding of the epic. This reads more like a poor fantasy novel.

One it does teach that no man is untouchable and all men can be corrupted by trivialest of things in life. Even the greatest of all seers one whom even the gods feared was corrupted by sexual seduction.
The biggest weakness in a man's mind is through is genitals but what may seem in the contemporary world to be money. I may not realize which weakness is better ,the emotional attachment of a sexual act or the material love of money.  If the human mind has remained since the times that the Mahabharata was written how would we compare to the great minds of Mahabharata. Are we as easily corruptible or are we so corrupted that such approaches which bear no spot in our personality.

I here in no way mean that sexual act will corrupt a minds innocence but an act doing an act that we may regret in retrospect.

What we may also observe that the Mahabharata is filled with references to Casteism but rather than treating something as downtrodden they treat each society as having its own importance in the society and in no way are the castes fixed which will realize later on in the narrative.

Sorry for the delay in this post but I was possessed by the 'Writers Block' and did not realize  the energy that it takes to write a blog. Even Tim Roughgarden seemed easy after trying to read this part of the book.