Mahabharata | Dharma as the Goal: The Mahabharata
In the following excerpt, Arun Kumar Mookerjee describes the Mahabharata as a record of the cultural life of India to the close of the Vedic-Aryan age, circa 1500-500 BC, focusing specifically on the spiritual concept of dharma.
The Mahabharata is a jayagrantha, as is said in the mangalacarana (salutation to God before undertaking any task) as well as in the Adi Parva. Jaya is a technical term for the whole of the eighteen Purana(s), Ramayana, Visnudharmasastra(s), Sivadharmasastra(s), and the Mahabharata (the "fifth Veda") composed by Vedavyasa Krsnadvaipayana. Vaisampayana, a disciple of Vedavyasa, recited the one hundred thousand verses of the Mahabharata at Taksasfla (now Taxila in Rawalpindi district, Pakistan)...
[The entire page is 4536 words long]
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