Mahabharata

If the successive additions and alterations to the Mahabharata are analysed and separated then sufficient light will be thrown on the early history of India. The heroes and heroines of the Mahabharata all belong to the Lunar race of Kings; this is, admitted by all; there were inter-marriages between the Solar and Lunar dynasties. The great Epic depicts an advanced, state of society and civilisation. Many detached stories interfere with the main plot of the Mahabharata, although attempts were made to connect them like the figures on a decorative frieze.

The Great Epic ultimately became the encyclopaedia of everything worth knowing in India, be it kavya, drama, philosophy, etc.

Much too often the two great Indian Epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, are confused by the scholars of to-day, with the result that conclusions reached in connection with the one are influenced by those reached in connection with the other. Their essential difference lies in the fact that the Ramayana confines itself to the deeds of one King Rama Chandra of Ayodhya, whereas the Mahabharata has a much wider scope, covering the multilateral character of Hinduism under different phases of civilisation and illustrating the very origins of social, moral, religious and spiritual developments, The unbounded reverence of the Hindus for the Mahabharata, as a sacred book covering the whole mental life of Ancient India and of the Hindus, derives its sanction from the divine words of Narayana to Narada.