The Mahabharata

Vyasa (attrib.) · c. 400 BCE · Poem · Hindu · Ancient

Two branches of one royal family, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, contest a kingdom until a rigged dice game sends the losers into exile and the quarrel toward open war. Around that spine gather genealogies, fables, law codes and the Bhagavad Gita, where a prince balking on the battlefield is instructed by his charioteer. The vast war of cousins for a kingdom, with the Gita's sermon on duty at its heart.

Open The Mahabharata in the archive — filters, lineage graph and full facet browsing.

Lineage

• parallels ↑ The Ramayana
  Valmiki · c. 400 BCE · Poem
• ↓ Shakuntala
  Kalidasa · c. 400 CE · Play — retells this
• ↓ The Bhagavad Gita
  Hindu scripture · c. 200 BCE · Scripture — contained in this
• ↓ The Churning of the Ocean of Milk
  Hindu myth · c. 300 BCE · Myth / Legend — contained in this
• ↓ Chitra
  Rabindranath Tagore · 1913 CE · Play — retells this
• ↓ Randamoozham
  M. T. Vasudevan Nair · 1984 CE · Novel — retells this
• ↓ Yayati
  Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar · 1959 CE · Novel — retells this

Attributes

Closest analogues

• The Aeneid
  Virgil · 19 BCE · Poem

  61% · 14 shared
  PoemEpicWarWar & ViolenceDuty & HonorFreedom vs FateHeroRuler / KingThe JourneyFirevs Personvs Fate / GodsEpicMythic
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms
  Luo Guanzhong · c. 1400 CE · Novel

  56% · 12 shared
  EpicWarWar & ViolenceDuty & HonorFreedom vs FateHeroRuler / KingMentorFall (Tragedy)vs Personvs Fate / GodsEpic
• The Book of Exodus
  Hebrew scripture · c. 550 BCE · Scripture

  55% · 12 shared
  EpicFaith & DoubtJustice & RevengeFreedom vs FateAncientHeroRuler / KingMentorFirevs Fate / GodsEpicMythic
• The Bhagavad Gita
  Hindu scripture · c. 200 BCE · Scripture

  55% · 12 shared
  WarWar & ViolenceDuty & HonorFaith & DoubtFreedom vs FateAncientHeroMentorvs Fate / GodsEpicMythicHindu
• The Book of Dede Korkut
  Anonymous · c. 1400 CE · Poem

  51% · 12 shared
  PoemEpicWar & ViolenceDuty & HonorHeroRuler / KingMentorFrame NarrativeThe Feastvs PersonEpicMythic
• Judith
  Anonymous · c. 1000 CE · Poem

  51% · 11 shared
  PoemEpicWarWar & ViolenceDuty & HonorFaith & DoubtJustice & RevengeThe Feastvs PersonEpicMythic