Mahabharata, translated as iastamahāBHārata, is one of the two famous Sanskrit epics in ancient India, and the other is Ramayana. The existing book Mahabharata is compiled on the basis of an epic, which is not only a long heroic epic, but also a large number of legends and stories as exclamations, as well as works of religious philosophy and code nature, so it is very long. Mahabharata, known as "200,000 Poems", was the longest epic in the world before King Gelsall was discovered. Mahabharata was written in about 800 years from the 4th century BC to the 4th century AD. It is formed by long-term creation and oral narration, continuous expansion of content and accumulation of layers. It was written in the era of India's transformation from primitive tribal society to national society, and also from Brahmanism in Vedic period to Neo-Brahmanism (Hinduism) in epic period. This epic is set in the era of national strife in India, and describes the struggle of two descendants of Bharata for the right to inherit the throne, which eventually led to the great war. Although the result of the war was victory or defeat, almost all the soldiers of both sides died in the battlefield, which is a historical tragedy. The writing process of this epic is a special way for ancient Indians to collect and preserve national ideological and cultural heritage. The epic itself declares: "Buddhism, interests, love and liberation are here, elsewhere, here and elsewhere." In other words, the content of this epic includes everything in the world. Therefore, after this epic was written, it was regarded as the "fifth Veda" of ancient India, that is, as a "holy book". The four oldest surviving Vedas in India (Rigveda, Samoyed Veda, Yeruveda and Adapo Piyeda)
Vedas are the "holy books" in the Vedic era, and Mahabharata is the "holy books" in the epic era and the classical era, that is, the "fifth Veda". Knowing the epic Mahabharata will give you a basic understanding of traditional Hindu culture. Therefore, modern Indian scholars believe that Mahabharata is a national epic of India, which contains the "collective unconsciousness" of the Indian nation and can be called "the soul of India". The story written in the epic is not a general royal struggle, but a struggle between two obviously opposing rulers. It is the struggle between the weak and the weak against the violent, the insulted and the insulted, and the struggle between the nobles who are close to the people because of exile and persecution and the arrogant and cruel nobles who stand on the throne. The keynote is to praise the just forces represented by hard struggle and condemn the evil forces represented by difficult enemies. Strive for justice, humility and kindness, not greed, arrogance and cruelty. The enemy's perverse actions are unpopular, and even some elders of the Gulu people sympathize with and protect Yidu people. Epic shows the people's desire to unify the world by a wise monarch instead of a tyrannical monarch in troubled times. Of course, epics are also loyal to reality. It describes that at the critical moment of the war, Pandu people won by deception with the support of the dark sky, thus reducing their glory. This shows that the author's understanding of the ruler is sober, and he has not blindly beautified it against the truth of life. What runs through the epic is the philosophical thought system of law. "Law" is the structural order of the country and society, and it is also the code of conduct that everyone should abide by. Laws and violations set the standards of right and wrong, good and evil. This idea is vividly expressed in epic stories, and the tough battle of the last surviving patriarch is interpreted as the embodiment and victory of the law. Of course, this is far-fetched. This work spread to Southeast Asia in various forms very early, which had an important influence on the development of local literature. It has been translated into some major modern Indian languages and English, French, German, Russian and even Java. The Chinese translation consists of six volumes, translated by Jin Kemu, Zhao Guohua and Huang Baosheng. It is the third complete translation in the world besides Sanskrit and English.
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After the Mahabharata was written, it was handed down by word of mouth and manuscript. The materials used in the manuscript are mainly birch bark and bay leaves. The printed version of Mahabharata began to appear in the19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, western scholars realized the great academic value of Mahabharata to the study of Indian culture, and had planned to compile a refined version of Mahabharata, but their work was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. From 19 19, a group of Sanskrit scholars in India restarted this book, which lasted for nearly half a century and published the Complete Works of Mahabharata in 1966.