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Question: Is the famous epic Mahabharata the longest poem in the world, or just ONE of the longest!?
I need to know if the the poem Mahabharata is amongst the longest poems in the world, or specifically the LONGEST!.Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
The problem with epics is that they are part of the oral tradition and so do not always have a defined extent or length!. By most counts the Mahabhrata runs to about 75k verses!. Compare to some of the things other people have mentioned!.

Of course, you could argue that "1 million bottles of beer on the wall" is by far the longest poem ever composed, so you have to make some simplifying assumptions and restrict your definitions somewhat!. Do you could some of the more absurd editions of The Arabian Nights, where there are a couple of thousand different nights included!? How do you define poetry!? (Nobody has really come up with a consistent definition across languages which isn't overbroad!.) And so forth!. You could make a case that the Mahabharata is the longest, and you can make a case that it isn't!. There's no official list!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

The tibetan epic Gesar of Ling is by some considered the longest epic in human history!. There is a problem though, as it is still to this day an oral tradition!. So there is no definitive text!. The wikipeda entry on this epic says that the text would fill twenty volumes, with 20 million words and 1 million verses!. Unfortunately the wikipedia entry says that these claims require citation!. I am sure that there are even more epics out there in the worlds civilizations that make similar claims!. Just adding another epic to your list!.
Good luck!.

Thanks for the question!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

The longest poem ever written by one man is the Shah Namah, or "Book of Kings," written by a Persian poet named Firdausi in the 10th century!.

This poem, a complete history of Persia, contained almost 60,000 verses, occupied 2,084 pages, and filled nine big volumes!. It took the poet 35 years to finish the work!

There was a reason why Firdausi wanted to write a very long poem!. The Sultan of Persia offered the poet one gold piece for every verse he wrote!. But when Firdausi had finished his long work and asked for his 60,000 gold pieces, the sultan sent him 60,000 silver pieces instead!.

Firdausi was so angered by the sultan's act that he gave away all 60,000 silver pieces — he even gave 20,000 of them to a beer-seller for one glass of beer!Www@QuestionHome@Com