The Mahabharata is the longest epic in the world consisting of 110,000 verses that are said to be 7 to 8 times the size of the next two longest, namely the Iliad and the Odyssey. In Vedic scriptures, it is among the two epics called Itihasas, the other being the Ramayana with around 24,000 verses.
The Itihasas themselves are part of what is referred to as the “Smritis” in Vedic parlance. It refers to those scriptures that are to be remembered or taught from memory and said to be documented by ancient humans. The other major branch in the Smritis are the Puranas which are a total of 18 compilations, varying from 10,000 to 50,000 verses each, which are a combination of history and fables spread across a much longer period of time, and containing a much larger list of characters from the start of creation, unlike the Itihasas that focus on one primary dynasty or time period.
The Smritis form one branch of Vedic literature and the other major branch is the Shrutis – that which is heard. The Shrutis, primarily consisting of the Vedas and the Upanishad, are not attributed to humans, and are said to be the direct word of God heard by ancient sages in elevated and enlightened states of consciousness. They contain analysis and philosophy along with in depth rituals for raising human consciousness to the eternal divine.
With this background on Vedic scriptures, let’s dive into the Smritis. The Itihasas and Puranas are narratives in the form of tales, stories, fables and epics, which through the medium of these narrations leave the reader, not with a direct to do list of how to live, but with an indirect lesson and takeaway on the methods of navigating through life. The Mahabharata is the longest of them all.
The Mahabharata consists of eighteen parvas or sections that are spread through many generations of the dynasty founded by the King Bharat. It can be read at three levels is what scholars profess.
The first level is the literary level where it can be analysed as a book and its story, with all its subplots and characters. The second level is the moral or ethical level where it can be analysed through the various situations and circumstances that the characters find themselves in, and how they react to them with their own consequences. The third level is where it can be analysed at a spiritual level where it is seen as an orchestration of the Lord to enable the reader to learn from the characters and develop the abilities to mould oneself in the direction of spiritual elevation in service of the Lord.
The eighteen parvas of the Mahabharata start from the earliest generations of Shantanu who is the father of Bheeshma to the last generation of Parikshit who is the grandson of Arjuna. There is no single proclaimed hero in the Mahabharata unlike the Ramayana. There are many major characters who play a pivotal role in the Mahabharata and whose characters, actions and consequences leave a lot of learnings for readers to digest.
The purpose of this book is to analyse the Mahabharata through the lens of the major characters, discuss the major events in their life and analyse them at the three levels mentioned above, namely the literary, the moral-ethical and the spiritual.
The characters that I plan to include are Bheeshma, Drona, Dhritarashtra, Vidur, Kunti, Yudhisthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Draupadi, Duryodhana, and Karna. Some of the other characters like Ashwatthama, Abhimanyu, Ghatotkacha, Dhrupad, Drishtadyumna, Jayadrata, Shikhandi, Sisupala and some others who played smaller but significant roles in the Mahabharata will also be discussed to a smaller degree, but woven in the lives of the eleven main characters above.
The notable absence from the list is the character of Krishna. While Krishna in the literary sense does not play a major role in the Mahabharata, the thread connecting all the characters and the events in the Mahabharata rest on Krishna. Therefore, Krishna is not analysed as a normal human character like the others, but as the all-encompassing, orchestrating Lord behind the Mahabharata. To that extent, Lord Krishna is the omnipresent character in the stories and analysis of all these characters and will be discussed in all the chapters.
With that introduction behind us, let us now begin with the subject of this book – the Mahabharata Characters.