Mahabharata | Style
Narrative Technique—Frame Stories
The complex structure of the Mahabharata exists in part due to its shape as a series of stories and narratives nested one within another. It opens with the first of two frame stories, which act as introductions, leading the reader toward the heart of the poem, the epic story of the great battle between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. The reader first encounters the tale of Sauti, a bard or storyteller, who recounts what he has heard of the Mahabharata to several listeners in the forest. Sauti quotes the sage Vaisampayana, who...
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