In the following excerpt, Mookerjee describes the Mahabharata as a record of the cultural life of India to the close of the Vedic-Aryan age, circa 1500-500 B. C, focusing specifically on the spiritual concept of dharma.
The Mahabharata is a jayagrantha, as is said in the mangalacarana (salutation to God before undertaking any task) as well as in the Adi Parva. Jaya is a technical term for the whole of the eighteen Purana(s), Ramayana, Visnudharmasa$tra(s), Sivadharmasastra{s), and the Mahabharata (the "fifth Veda") composed by Vedavyasa Krsnadvaipayana. Vais'ampayana, a disciple of Vedavyasa, recited the one hundred thousand verses of the Mahabharata at Taksasfla (now Taxila in Rawalpindi district, Pakistan) in the presence of King Janmejaya, great grandson of Arjuna. Without the episodic and didactic diversions, the story of the Mahabharata extends to twenty-four thousand verses. A shortened.....
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