Mahabharata | Essays and Criticism

  • The Role of Dharma

    In the following essay, Sean McCready discusses the role of dharma, sacred duty, on the characters in the poem, focusing primarily on the five Pandavas and also on Bhishma.

  • 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.

  • Introduction to Mahabharata

    In the following excerpt from an introduction to William Buck's prose retelling of the Mahabharata, B.A. van Nooten outlines the story told in the epic work, provides some historical background to the period portrayed in this epic, and discusses the systems of morality, eschatology (a branch of theology), and philosophy that underlies and informs the action.