A short summary of the Longest Epic ever exist.

1. Mahabharata
Veda Vyasa

2. • The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of
ancient India.
• the authorship of the Mahabharata is attributed to the great
sage Veda Vyasa (Krsna Dvaipaya)
• Longest epic of the world
• one hundred thousand verses, long prose passages, or about
1.8 million words in total
• roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and Odyssey
combined or about four times the length of the Ramayana.
• called Mahabharata due to the immense size and its dealing
with the story of the people of the race descended from
the ancient emperor Bharata

3. • Shantanu, king of Hastinapura, was married to the
beautiful Ganga, who was the river goddess in disguise.
• Bhishma… 8th son left
• Shantanu married again with Satyavati, mother of Vyasa
• Bhishma abducted 3 sisters, Amba, Ambika, and
Ambalika.
• Amba then vowed that one day she would kill him.
• Satyavati… ask Vyasa to give childern to two princesses
Ambika and Ambalika.
• first child would be born blind, Dhritarashtra… 2nd
child will be pale-skinned, Pandu

4. • Pandu shoots a gazelle of a brahmin, so he
cursed him…
• Kunti… Yudhisthira, Bhima and Arjuna
• Madri… Nakula and Sahaveda (Pandavas)
• After Pandu died, Dhritarashtra has become
king, despite his blindness.
• Gives birth to a ball of flesh,… became a parent
of 100 sons. (Kauravas)
• Duryodhana… first son of Kauravas brings hate

5. • Because of jealous, Duryodhana planned to kill the
Pandavas…
• Pandavas escaped… then lived in forest.
• Pandavas attend swayamvara of Draupadi… Arjuna
wins Draupadi as “prize”
• Kunti tells Arjuna to share his prize to his brothers
without seeing first Draupadi. Then, five brothers
married Draupadi.
• As tension between families mounts, Krishna makes his
appearance to intervene.

6. • To avert war, Krishna advice King Dhritarashtra to
give the half of the kingdom to Pandavas…
Yudhisthira accepts.
• Indraprastha… new kingdom lead by Yudhisthira…
Duryodhana felt jealous.
• Pandavas lost to a dice game then they lost
everything, including Draupadi.
• Duryodhana uncovers Draupadi, but Krishna
rescue her.
• She swears that one day she will be
avenged.

7. • Pandavas are condemned to spend 12 years of exile in
forest and a 13th year in an unknown place to disguise.
• Arjuna aims to the highest mountains to look for
celestial weapons… Shiva gave him.
• Meanwhile Duryodhana has launched an attack on
Virata's kingdom. Then lost to Arjuna.
• Duryodhana refuses to give his cousins back their
kingdom
• Krishna offers Arjuna first choice: either he can have all
of Krishna’s armies, or he can have Krishna
alone..Arjuna chooses Krishna. When Arjuna asks him
to drive his chariot, Krishna accepts.

8. • Krishna pleads with Dhritarashtra one last time to
restore to the Pandavas their rightful kingdom.
• Convinced by Duryodhana, not to. “I can sacrifice my life,
my wealth, my kingdom, my everything, but I can never live in
peace with the Pandavas.”
• Then begins the war at Kuru’s Field when Duryodhana
refuse to give back the Pandavas Kingdom.
• They set some rules but eventually broken.
• Arjuna thinks before he acts. Arjuna hesitates before
such killing, wanting to retreat from life and
responsibility (tension between dharma and moksha).

9. • Krishna then reveals his divine, universal nature to Arjuna
in a magnificent vision of a multitude of gods, stretching
out to infinity.
• Resolved now to perform his duty to his lord, Arjuna leads
his troops into battle.
• On the first day, Bhisma leads the Kuaravas army to enter
the battle and he wins the war.
• No one cannot fight with Bhisma, because he was blessed
with the power to choose his time of death.
• Sikhandi was put into war. Bhisma refuse to fight a woman.
Then killed by Bhisma.
• Sikhandi is the reincarnation of Amba, who cursed Bhisma.

10. • Bhima kills most of the 100 Kauravas, who were
demons incarnate.
• The war lasted for 18 days.
• Duryodhana choose to fight with Bhima. Bhima stikes
his legs. Duryudhana died.
• Krishna reveals that the gods allowed this war to relieve
Earth of her great burden. Duryodhana was the
incarnation of Kali, lord of the 4th age.
• Bhisma lay down in the bed of arrows.
• Bhishma tells Yudhishthira, “If one fights against trickery,
one should oppose him with trickery. But if one fights lawfully,
one should check him with dharma.”

11. • Krishna Vasudeva departed from this earth thirty-six
years after the war.
• Pandavas also leave this world… the Great Journey
• Yudhisthira and his dog arrives at entrance of paradise.
• Draupadi and his brothers died along the way.
• The gate keeper tells Yudhisthira to leave his dog if he
wants to enter the paradise.
• He refuses to leave aa creature so faithful, and is
permitted to enter, for this was a test, the dog was the
god Dharma in disguise.

12. • In paradise, Yudhisthira saw his enemies are there,
smiling and contented.
• He decides to stay with his loved ones, Draupadi in hell,
rather than enjoy the delights of heaven with his
enemies.
• This too was a test, the “final illusion.”
• They are all permitted to enter paradise.

13. Thank You! :)