The Mahabharata (composed between 300 BC and 300 AD) has the honor of being the longest epic in world literature, 100,000 2-line stanzas (although the most recent critical edition edits this down to about 88,000), making it eight times as long as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey together, and over 3 times as long as the Bible (Chaitanya vii). According to the Narasimhan version, only about 4000 lines relate to the main story; the rest contain additional myths and teachings. In other words, theMahabharata resembles a long journey with many side roads and detours. It is said that “Whatever is here is found elsewhere. But whatever is not here is nowhere else.”
The name means “great [story of the] Bharatas.” Bharata was an early ancestor of both the Pandavas and Kauravas who fight each other in a great war, but the word is also used generically for the Indian race, so the Mahabharata sometimes is referred to as “the great story of India.”
The work is divided into 18 books (concerning an 18-day war among 18 armies). The main narrative concerning the war is contained in the first ten books.

Pronunciation guide of the main characters:
Vyasa [Vee-YA-sha]: narrator of the story and father of Pandu and Dhritarashtra
BHISH-ma: half-uncle by marriage of Pandu and Dhritarashtra
Dhri-ta-RASH-tra: blind king, father of Duryodhana and the Kauravas
GAN-dhari: wife of Dhritarashtra
KUN-ti: wife of Pandu and mother to the five Pandavas and Karna
Yu-DHISH-thira: leader of the Pandavas, rightful heir to the throne
BHI-ma: strongest of the Pandava brothers
AR-juna: mightiest of warriors
NA-kula and Saha-DE-va: Pandava twins
DRAU-pa-di: wife to the five Pandavas
Du-ry-ODH-ana: leader of the Kauravas
Duh-SA-sa-na: brother to Duryodhana
KRISH-na: supporter of the Pandavas and avatar of Vishnu
DRO-na: teacher of the Pandavas and Kauravas
KAR-na: warrior, secret son of Kunti, ally of the Kauravas

santanu king of hastinapura, was married to the beautiful ganga, who was a river goddess in disguise. she agreed to marry him as long as he never questioned her actions. over the years they had seven sons but ganga threw each one of them into the river. santanu was distressed but he kept his promise. when their eighth son was born. santanu asked ganga who she really was and why she does this. ganga revealed herself and said that her children were celestial beingswho were cursed to become human. but santanu questioned her actions, so she left him with his last son devarata. devarata is better known as bhishma, he receives this name after vowing never to marry or have children. His father wanted to marry again (Satyavati, mother of Vyasa), but the conditions of the marriage were that the second wife would be the mother of a king someday. Honoring his father's wishes, Bhishma makes his vow, guaranteeing that neither he nor a son of his will challenge the claim to the throne. years later bhishma's half brother dies in battle while the other one was old enough to be married, so in behalf of his brother, bhishma abducts three sisters and fight off all their suitors, he then learns that one of the sisters amba had already chosen a man who she would marry, so bhishma lets her go, but the man who she has chosen does not want her anymore, so she goes back to bhishma and demands that he marry her but bhishma was faithful to his vow of not having children, amba then vows that she would kill him even though bhishma has the power to choose the day of his death because of his vow.
Once stated, a vow becomes the truth and must be fulfilled, no matter what else may happen. when his father and brother dies, he refuses to marry his step brothers widows. satyavati the second wife of the king asks his first son vyasa the poet to give children to the two widows, but vyasa was a simple and strict man who lives in poverty thus he is dirty and he smells. The

GROWING RIVALRY BETWEEN THE KAURAVAS AND PANDAVAS
Bhishma, now an old man, takes the responsibility of raising the two sets of cousins. They fight constantly, and even try to kill each other. one day drona a master of arms appears and offers his services to train the boys, but he has a secret mission. when drona was younger he was close to drupada( a king) after a few years drona went to see drupada who is now a king but Drupada did not accept him as a friend because according to him "only equals can be friends"in exchange for training drona asks the pandavas to avenge him. they conquer drupada's kingdom and gave it to drona, drona then gives half of the kingdom to drupada saying now were equals. drona recognizes arjuna's skill in archery thus he favors him and gives his special training, drona then prepares a tournament to display the skills of the 5 pandava brothers in but a stranger appears and equals arjuna in archery. this is karna, little did he pandavas know that karna is the son of their mother kunti to the sun god before he married pandu, when karna was a baby she put him in a basket and put him in the river. but kunti did not know this and the pandavas mocked him and they said they would not fight with someone who isnt of royal birth. but their cousin Duryodhana from the kauravas seeing a potential ally in kunti, ignored the strict rules of the caste system and said that "Birth is obscure and men are like rivers whose origins are often unknown" duryodhana gives karna a small kingdom and karna swears eternal friendship to the kauravas.
The Pandavas narrowly escape a plot by Duryodhana to burn them in a house made of highly flammable materials. For months afterward, they live in hiding in the forest. One night as Bhima keeps watch while the others sleep, there appears a rakshasa named Hidimbi (a man-eating ogre, one type of demon). Assuming the form of a beautiful woman, she falls madly in love with Bhima, who fights and kills her venomous brother. Bhima and the magical creature then have a powerful demon child called Ghatotkatcha; he swears to come to the aid of his father whenever necessary. the pandavas attend the swayamvara of draupadi, this is a ceremony where she will pick her husband, Arjuna wins the archery contest and Draupadi chooses him to be her husband. Arjuna goes to kunti and announces that he has won an archery contest and without checkng what the prize was he told them to share the prize and like a vow her statement was irrevocable. so the five brothers marry draupadi, at the same time it is also the fulfillment of karma because in draupadi's past life she prayed to shiva and asked for a husband five times.
Living in their new territory of Indraprastha, Yudhishthira turns poor land into a wealthy kingdom, and declares himself King of Kings. Duryodhana is jealous and humiliated on his visit to the magnificent palace, he did not want to step on the shiney floor thinking it was water so he was corrected of his mistake, upon wandering the palace he sees a pond thinking it is water he steps on it and is humiliated. draupadi and bhima laughed at him. He then arranged a plan for revenge.
Duryodana arranges a dice game as suggested by his uncle shakuni, wherein he cheats, Yudhishthira loses and is forced to gamble everything he has even putting himself, his brothers and his wife into servitude. the kauravas insulted Draupadi and disrobed her, but krishna comes to her rescue and creates and endless supply of cloth around her.
She swears that one day she will be avenged. There will be a great war, a war without mercy. At her curse a jackal howls. Frightened, Dhritarashtra apologizes to her and gives her husbands' back everything they lost, but Draupadi asks nothing for herself, saying, “Greed devours all beings and is dharma's [righteousness] ruin. I refuse greed.” (CN 55) the pandavas and draupadi were exiled from the kingdom for 12 years. and on the thirteenth year they wear to remain hidden, so they disguised themselves .

The Bhagavad Gita (“The Lord's Song”)
Just as the battle is about to start, Arjuna falters at the sight of his relatives and teachers, now his sworn enemies. He breaks down and refuses to fight. “How can any good come from killing one’s own relatives? What value is victory if all our friends and loved ones are killed? … We will be overcome by sin if we slay such aggressors. Our proper duty is surely to forgive them. Even if they have lost sight of dharma due to greed, we ourselves should not forget dharma in the same way.” (KD 544-5)
Arjuna fears that acting out his own dharma as warrior will conflict with universal dharma: how can killing family members be good, and not disrupt the social order? Herein lies an unresolved conflict in Hinduism between universal dharma and svadharma (an individual's duty according to caste and station in life). A warrior must kill to fulfill his duty, whereas a brahmin must avoid harming any living creature. Even demons have their own castes and svadharma, which may run counter to human morality. One person's dharma may be another's sin. This doctrine distinguishes Hindu thought from religions such as Judeo-Christianity and Islam which teach universal or absolute moral codes.

Dharma: Responsibility and Sacred Duty
Despite its size and complexity, the Mahabharata explores one over-arching theme predominantly: the observance of one's sacred duty, called dharma. All other thematic issues in the work relate to the question of dharma obeyed or ignored. The characters who satisfy the dictates of dharma are eventually rewarded, while those who consciously refuse to obey their dharma are inevitably punished. According to Hindu law, each individual has a special place in society and must behave in strict accordance to the requirements of that position, called caste. In the Mahabharata, all the important characters belong to the Kshatriya or warrior caste. Individuals such as Yudhishthira, Arjuna, Bhima, and Duryodhana must obey the dharma of warriors. They must be courageous, honorable, and respectful of their opponents. They must never take unfair advantage; for example, attacking an unarmed or unprepared enemy. Duryodhana, for example, fights fairly against Bhima, who wrongly strikes him "below the belt" in their combat. At the end of the narrative, we see that Duryodhana, despite his often evil and unkind actions, gains admittance to heaven because he always adhered to the code or dharma of the warrior.
More than any other figure in the Mahabharata, Yudhishthira represents the proper observance of dharma. This is underscored at the end of the narrative, when he will not abandon the faithful dog who accompanied him on his final journey. It is revealed to the reader that this dog is the god Dharma in disguise, testing his son's worthiness one last time. Thus symbolically Yudhishthira is shown refusing to forsake his dharma and therefore demonstrating that he is deserving to enter into heaven at his death. Likewise, most of his actions throughout the poem are those of a man committed to engaging in right behavior as a king and a warrior. When he does fail to live up to these high ideals—as, for example, when he continues gambling until he has lost his wealth and kingdom as well as his wife and his own and his brothers' freedom—he suffers greatly and pays a high price.
In additional to depictions of the importance of dharmaembodied in specific characters, the Mahabharata contains passages that teach specific lessons about social and spiritual responsibility. Bhishma's speeches to Yudhishthira focus on thedharma of good leadership and effective ruling. Ultimately, theMahabharata observes that existence and happiness depend less on courage and destiny than on an understanding and acceptance of the rules and responsibilities of dharma.
Virtue and Truth
The concepts of virtue and truth are closely related to that ofdharma. The Mahabharata includes the story of a great, epoch-spanning and empire-establishing war, and so often stresses the virtues of bravery, honesty, and nobility that form the basis of Kshatriya dharma, the code of warriors in ancient India. The narrative also shows many instances of individuals violating various codes of conduct. Sakuni, for instance, cheats in order to defeat his guests, thus violating codes meant to govern rules of hospitality and of fairness. This event stands as a telltale sign to original hearers and readers of this epic that Sakuni and his family are destined to be defeated in the coming war.
Truth and truthfulness are also prominent in the Mahabharata. Krishna, an incarnation of the god of truth Vishnu, reveals many important truths to the moral characters. Most importantly, he sings the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna before the great battle begins, revealing to the reluctant fighter the essential truths about the illusory nature of death and the cyclical nature of life. By itself theBhagavad Gita is a sacred Hindu test; in the plot of theMahabharata it has both sacred and secular functions, serving to fill Arjuna with the confidence and conviction of divine truth so that he may pursue his dharma. His destiny is to fight for the Pandavas and to defeat the Kauravas.
Order and Disorder, Good and Evil
On a symbolic level, the Mahabharata tells an ancient story of a mythic, primal conflict between opposing forces of light and darkness. Pandu, the pale, and his sons the Pandavas, represent order and goodness in opposition to the blind Dhritarashtra, his son Duryodhana, and the Kauravas, who represent darkness and disorder. As an allegory, then, the poem shows the classic conflict between the forces of good and evil. In the end, of course, the forces of good triumph, aided by the god Vishnu, who comes to earth as Krishna to ensure the ultimate triumph of good. But in the process of winning, the Pandavas themselves are nearly destroyed. They also find themselves using deception and dishonorable tactics to defeat their opponents. This fact has often been seen as an indication that assessments of absolute good and absolute evil are difficult to make; further, that sometimes a rightful end can only be reached through unrighteous means.
In the Mahabharata, the desired and rightful end is for a lasting peace. Yet to attain this goal, the Pandavas and Kauravas must engage in the great war. Many are killed horribly on both sides. The people suffer and their nation is impoverished as the two groups fight. The symbolic goal, however, is the defeat of evil and the restoration of order.
Hinduism—The Flesh versus the Spirit
Perhaps the most important transcendent or spiritual theme of the Mahabharata is primarily embodied in the Bhagavad Gita, and entails the basic teachings of Hinduism. In particular, this section of the poem transmits information about reincarnation and the possibility of ascension into heaven. As Krishna explains in his song to Arjuna, death is not the end of life. Human souls are immortal and are reincarnated through a process calledsamsara, or transmigration. Further, according to the concept ofkarma, those who have lived their lives in proper accordance with their dharma will be rewarded in each subsequent life. The final step in the life cycle is that of nirvana: both karma and samsaraare transcended. The soul that attains nirvana moves beyond desire and individual consciousness to a pure, enlightened state, freed from the cycle of reincarnation. To accept this endless cycle of purification is to see that physical life and death on earth are only a small part of the true cycle of human existence.