Handling the Mahabharata as a text

When historians use a text like the Mahabharata, they ask questions: in what language was it written? What kind of text is it? Who wrote it, and for whom? When and where was it composed?

Language and content. Its Sanskrit is far simpler than that of the Vedas, so it was probably widely understood. Its content has two parts: narrative (stories) and didactic (teaching about social norms).

Authors and dates. The original story was probably composed by charioteer-bards, the sutas, who sang it orally at battlefields and courts. From the fifth century BCE, Brahmanas took over the story and began to write it down. Between about 200 and 400 CE, large didactic sections, which resemble the Manusmriti, were added.

Archaeology. In 1951-52, the archaeologist B. B. Lal excavated a village called Hastinapura (Meerut district). He found modest houses of mud and mud-brick, nothing like the grand city of the epic. It may not be the same place, or the epic may have exaggerated.

Draupadi's polyandry (marriage to five brothers) is explained in the epic itself in three ways: for example, Kunti, without seeing her, told her sons to share whatever they had brought home, and her command could not be broken; the seer Vyasa gave other reasons. Present-day historians suggest that polyandry may have been common among ruling elites, and that it later fell into disfavour; it was (and is) practised in the Himalayan region; or there may have been a shortage of women in times of war. The epic has been retold in many languages, like Mahashweta Devi's Bengali story 'Kunti O Nishadi', and this keeps it alive. Ask who, when and for whom, before trusting a text.