Facts about Mahabharata .

[Kartik 0]

Hi friends ,

 

I am new to this place , I needed some facts about the originality of Mahabharata. I was having this argument with my friends and they say that there is no concrete proof of it and Its just a folk tale .

 

I am sure they are wrong as anyone in 500BC cannot be so knowledgeable to write something so big that will take a normal guy his entire lifetime to think of if at all its fiction .

 

So there must be something similar to Mahabharata, Seeing which it must have prompted the writing of the great Epic. I agree that not everything is true , but dont tell me everything is False.

 

It would be great if someone can tell me about the facts that can be correlated with the actual happening of Mahabharata.

 

 

Thanks.

[barney 0]

http://www.geocities.com/dipalsarvesh/mahabharat_astronomy1.html

[maadhav 0]

bhagavan vyasdev wrote the history as he witnessed it.

he did not write a fiction.

ganesh was his scribe.

 

vayasa was able to compose verses very fast, and needed some one who can write it so fast.

finally he requested ganesh for the work.

none else could do it, he found.

 

here is the dialogue between vyas and ganesh.

 

vyasa: i request your help to write verses as i compose. ususlly i compose very fast.

 

ganesh: i am too fast in writing and write very accurately. but i cannot wait while you compose.

you cannot keep up with my speed.

 

vyasa: well genesh ji, i have one more request. i would compose and give you verses as fast as i could, but please agree that you would not write any verse till you know it is true and you undertand it well.

 

ganesh: i agee.

 

so, with this arrangement, vyasa would occasionally compose a difficult verse, ganesh would stop writing till he understood it. mean while vyasa would compose many more verses.

 

a faithless person can hadrly derive any benefit from mahabharat that includes bhagavad gita as a chapter.

 

rather that thinking of the history,

one needs to read it with faith and benefit from it.

 

no hindu would or should say mahabharat is a fiction.

 

[Guest guest]

Mahabharata 'events' either happened 3000BC or 1500BC. At this age it s very hard to prove events, however there have been some excavations at kurukshetra where there is evidence of an intense war having taken place. Dwarka which sank at the end of Mahabharata has been re-discovered off the coast of modern day Dwarka. See the link below, where they show the excavations at Dwarka.

 

http://www.atributetohinduism.com/Dwaraka.htm

 

What you quoted as 500BC was the 'extended' Mahbharata as we know it today with additions mainly influenced by the Puranas, which alot of Hindu scholars believe are myths and allegories. The original Mahabharata by Sage Vyasa was called Jaya or Jai and is shorter than the Mahabharata of today. I've heard from someone that you can still get Jaya, though it is very hard to find.

 

Just out of curiosity, are your friends who deny Mahabharata, Hindus or another religion? And what sects or movement are they from? I think there are some Hindu groups who don't believe in Ramayana and Mahabharata.

[maadhav 0]

<< I think there are some Hindu groups who don't believe in Ramayana and Mahabharata. >>

 

no, not sects.

but some individuals may be dumb enough to not believe them.

 

[Guest guest]

Why would they be dumb not to believe them, when there's no evidence to support the actual events of the Mahabharata or Ramayana aside from astronomical events being written down in the texts?

[maadhav 0]

they are smart, materially only.

 

 

[Guest guest]

Dont you think that if at all Mahabharata was a fiction it would be the greatest fiction ever. There is not one version of it , there are many writings about mahabharata So people see something in Real life they like it and the feel they should write about it. Dont tell me people then were so Divine that all of them could think alike , after all great minds Do think Alike. Its not like Panchatantra where in its just an accumulation of good Moral Stories .

 

Its pretty tough for a natural guy to actually write an epic like Mahabharata in his natural lifetime which at that time was around 30-35 years.

 

One more good argument I would like to put, It not that those people had satellites in 3500BC to know pin point geography. So in Ramayana the fact that they go from Ayodhya all the way down to south and then Lanka. So if it was just a fictgion and not an actual story , how will the guy who wrote it know so much intricate details about the places throught India unless he has actually gone thru it and if he has then he has no time to write the book as they didnt have planes then.

 

Also Some thing might seem strange and completely obnoxious, but thats acccepted as its supposed to be more like a poetry so if one writes hard facts no one will like it.

 

Tomorrow if God Forbid there is an end of the world, and somehow again some civilization comes up , they will have a real tough time figuring out the facts that they are getting .

 

And for something 3500BC which is approx 6000 years ago ( 120 generations considering average lifetime 50) anything could have happened in between.

 

So please dont be critical, Be open minded.

 

I have seen people here in CA who ask me questions about Hinduism which I cant answer cos i have never gone deep enmough. So i feel bad when foreigners know more than we do.

 

If we dont Support Mahabharata Who will !!!!!

 

Regards,

Kartik

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

You say they didn't have planes back then, but didn't they have vimanas? It sounds to me like you're negating one belief for another. But vimanas are written about in both the Ramayana and Mahabharata aren't they?

 

Maybe they did have advanced technology back then, which somehow got lost over the years.

[Kartik 0]

Guys , Dont get me wrong . I beleive in Mahabharata , I was trying to prove the non beleivers why geographical significance is a good point.

 

In Mahabharat - U had the Pushpak Vimana , which was more like a Chariot with Wings , I dont think it was possessed by everyone , definetly not by the one who wrote it.

 

In Ramayan which is slightly older , There was the garuda Vimana Which was the viceversa of the other , it was a Bird with wings with a chariot in its back.

 

My Point is that its not possible for the write in his life span to roam and write the Mahabharata. So I am saying that Mahabharata is a true thing which happened. As its Faster to just write what happened in real life in a poetry manner than think of a theme ( a very very good one which is very well connected ) and then write poetry.

 

Regards

Kartik

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

If all that happened in mahabharat was true. The most unbelievable factor is the birth of 100 gaurava brother. Any rational mind will immediately reject this idea of 100 brother from a singel mother. My opinion all the characters and incidents in mahabharat symbolise more deeper meaning.If not taken literally the Mahabharat has more to offer than just story.

[Kartik 0]

Hi There,

The 100 Kaurava brothers were born to Gandhari, was not through the normal process if you would remember. Kunti had all the 5 sons which was through Gods influence for instance Karna was son of SURYA , Bheema was son of Wind god etc .

 

Dharma, Bheema, and Arjun are born to Kunti. Nakul and Sahadev are born to Madri. They are born within one year of each other. The 5 brothers are called Pandav.

 

100 sons (Duryodhan, Dushasan, Karna, Vikarana, etc.) and a daughter Dusheela are born from the same embryo to Gandhari. Duryodhan is born one day after Bheema. The rest are born in the following 100 days. The 100 brothers are called Kaurava.

 

After hearing the birth of Yudhistira , Gandhari was Jealous and wanted to have kids of her own , She went to some Swami , I forgot the name and she had the children in pots , something like Test tube Babies maybe i dont know the funda. If some one can put some light on this matter it would be gr8.

 

Regards,

Kartik

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

They were not born by natural means. There was some other process like cloning or something like that involved. Have to refer to Rajaji's mahabharata to find out.

[Guest guest]

Does anyone have access to "Jaya" which is the original mahabharata? Probably alot of the mythology is no there like the 100 sons, through what looks like an ancient version of cloning. Someone told be that the present day Mahabharat has Puranic influences which make it irrational and hard to believe. If all of these flying chariots existed back then, why is there no knowledge of how to do them now? Why is there no evidence found that they existed?

[Guest guest]

Traces of that civilization have been wiped away. Even the Ramayana mentions the vimanas.

[Guest guest]

The link below gives some points as to the Mahabharata actually occuring in History.

 

http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/ancient/mahabharat/mahab_reality.html

[Guest guest]

Can you translate the name of dritharastra and his sons

[Guest guest]

There is no reason why ppl during the times of Ramayan or Mahabharat should'nt have been more advanced than we are now. Only if you think of time as linear, you will find my statement farfetched. But according to vedas, time is cyclic, which means there is first creation, followed by evolution (preservation) where cultures advance and finally dissolution. Again, another cycle starts and follows the same principle. In other words, every yug starts with primitive beigns and cultures and soon evolves to an advanced state and as soon as that happens, it dissolves and the next cycle occurs. So during the time of mahabhrath, the ppl must've reached the eventual heights capable for that time (such as vimanas and other amazing things), and when that happened, it all ended in dissolution and kali yug started from the primitive times. Now that we are advanced, we are confused as to how ppl during mahabharat couldve had vimanas or hi-tech equipment. See what I am getting at? We are thinking in terms of linear time, think cyclic and you'll get it right.

[Guest guest]

yea but ,i heard that in other kali yugas there where more advance by now .like ,evry one flying and so on ,so the cyclis are the same but ,the advancment or primitive states can be diferent

[Guest guest]

undoubtedly there was a war between two parties. But then it grew and grew at the hand of folk poets and minstrels at courts. Then a lot of philosophical digressions also got put in. scholars think it took 800 years to give it its final form.

 

So what matters if the epic is fiction or not? Generations of Hindus did not read it to get historical lessons but to understand dharma.

This is not like Christianity and Islam where the events have to be literally true to retain their validity.

 

 

Sure vimanas are mentioned but it is only a fantasy. Have you not noticed that the ‘advanced technology’ is always extrapolations from what men could see in their material world? Men could see birds fly and so they dreamt of either being able to fly themselves or have chariots that could fly. Things they could not dream of, because circumstances offered them no clue, like x-rays, computers, plastic are never mentioned.

 

There is a far more simpler explanation about the hundred children. Gandhari had only three children of her own womb (duryodhana, Dushashana and Dushala); the rest are really children of kinsmen and servants who were reared in the palace. the shastras do say that children born of servant girls or born in the household should be counted as children of the head of the family.

 

[harerama 0]

The Mahabharata wasn't some petty squabble. It was about a war that would change the face of the earth. It would usher in a new age, Kali Yuga. This doesn't happen with a mere tribal war.

 

Kings from all different nations gathered to be on the side of the Pandavas or Kauravas.

 

The technology isn't mere extrapolation, because they DO describe atomic weapons, and there is evidence of something having produced intense heat and radiation at sites like Mohenjo-daro.

 

Maybe you are too blinded by Indologists who do not see time as a circular concept. That is their flaw when they gather evidence, unfortunately. Time does not move in a linear fashion. It may appear it does within a certain time period, but extend beyond it, it curves this way and that way, to form a cycle.