Talk:Mahabharata

Errors

The page does not attribute into anything archeologically true, for example, what is the oldest known script for Mahabharata. The standard history books date the whole ballad to Gupta Age, however, some highly biased Indian organisations are setting it up way before that. The oldest preserved Gita is dated around 1400 AD. This is sensitive to the Hindus in a way, therefore I believe we should lock free modification on this page, and site properly from which source the dates came.

Nmondal (talk) 05:28, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

While tidying up the section 'Textual history and structure', I came across the passages below. On close reading these seem to be very obviously wrong to me, despite having been there for almost 3 years and I and many others having read through them many times. Sanjaya did not recite 'Jaya' (the almost hypothetical orignal work that became the MB), he told the story of the great battle, i.e. the Bhagavad Gita. But there's good stuff once the confusion of Jaya and the Gita is sorted out. I've taken out the passages for a complete rewrite but include them again here for any comments.

Jaya, the core of the Mahabharata is structured in the form of a dialogue between Kuru King Dhritarashtra and Sanjaya, his advisor and chariot driver. Sanjaya narrates each incident of the Kurukshetra War, fought in 18 days, as and when it happened. Dhritarashtra sometimes asks questions and doubts, and sometimes laments, sensing the imminent destruction that would be caused by the war, to his sons, friends and kinsmen. He also feels guilty about his own role in the lead-up to this war.

In the beginning, Sanjaya gives a description of the continents of the Earth, and of the other planets. He focuses on the Indian Subcontinent and gives an elaborate list of hundreds of kingdoms, tribes, provinces, cities, towns, villages, rivers, mountains, forests, etc. of the (ancient) Indian Subcontinent (Bhārata Varsha). He also explains about the military formations adopted by each side on each day, the death of each hero and the details of each war-racings. Some 18 chapters of Vyasa's Jaya constitutes the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred text of the Hindus. Thus, this work of Vyasa, called Jaya deals with diverse subjects like geography, history, warfare, religion and morality. According to the Mahabharata itself, Vaisampayana's Bharata expanded on the story, with Vyasa's Jaya embedded within it. Ugrasrava eventually composed the final Mahabharata, with Vyasa's Jaya and Vaisampayana's Bharata embedded in the epic.

Imc (talk) 09:01, 25 August 2013 (UTC)

Parvas and Subparvas

The information provided by this page on the subparvas contained within each of the 18 parvas or books is not in agreement with the information otherwise provided by the individual pages existing on each of the parvas. For instance, Book 3, the Araṇyaka Parva or Vana Parva, is said on the Mahābhārata page to contain subparvas 29-44 (which amount to a total of 16) whereas on the Vana Parva page itself it is said to contain 13 subparvas. Not only that. The Hindi page on the Mahābhārata presents yet a different account of the subparvas (cf. [1]), with 22 subparvas allocated to Book 3 for instance. The Hindi page further bears witness to the names, which must be traditional. I would therefore suggest either adding an explanation of the reasons for these discrepancies, or to correct the account according to the Hindi page, which is likely to be more reliable for the accepted divisions. Aggfvavitus (talk) 17:59, 8 January 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 25 January 2014

Request to edit "Cultural influence" section. Edit ought to note that an academic article recently published notes that independent India's diplomats have throughout the post-1947 period, have ordered themselves according to the Mahabharata. Those ordering themselves in terms of that text include current National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon. The article argues that this ordering is indicative of how the Mahabharata provides the foundation for the rationale for Indian diplomacy. The article may be found here: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198085409.001.0001/acprof-9780198085409-chapter-4?rskey=FsitBU&result=3 There is another online resource about the article here: http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-Asia&month=1308&week=b&msg=z5556xrzbunJdRFY6FbQUg 202.177.247.142 (talk) 16:43, 25 January 2014 (UTC)

What I can see is a brief abstract of one recently published article and another very brief primary source. IMO not really enough or sufficiently notable as yet to add anything significant to the article. Imc (talk) 12:49, 26 January 2014 (UTC)

Please note that the article is published by the foremost academic publisher in the world. And the suggestion was made after having read the piece. Realising most don't have access to academic productions, the argument of the article is summarised above. (Sorry for not replying in the correct format). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.177.247.142 (talk) 16:56, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

Not done: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{edit semi-protected}} template. I agree with Imc here, and you'll need to either come up with better INDEPENDENT RELIABLE SOURCES" or get a CONSENSUS that the sources that you've given are adequate. — {{U|Technical 13}} ^{(t • e • c)} 16:49, 20 February 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 4 February 2014

Hello, I want to make a note on other indian versions of Mahabarath. Please allow. Sai santhosh00 (talk) 12:49, 4 February 2014 (UTC)

Hi, as the template message says, you're supposed to put here "a verbatim copy of the text" that you want inserted in the article. So please type here exactly what text you plan to include (as if you were editing the article itself), along with where in the article you'd like it to be. Then, someone will take a call on whether it can be inserted into the article. Shreevatsa (talk) 14:57, 4 February 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 9 February 2014

Under the sub-heading 'Modern Interpretations' please add "Saarrthi,a Hindi television drama broadcast on STAR Plus and produced by Neela Telefilms. The story is a reworking of the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, detailing the conflict between two brothers and their families in contemporary India." Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saarrthi 122.176.251.133 (talk) 07:50, 9 February 2014 (UTC)

We can’t use Wikipedia itself as a source. If the above article has independent references for the addition, please adduce them instead.—Odysseus1479 08:37, 20 February 2014 (UTC)

Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. — {{U|Technical 13}} ^{(t • e • c)} 16:50, 20 February 2014 (UTC)