History of Mahabharata ?

Question: History of Mahabharata !?
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The Mahābhārata (Devanāgarī: ???????), /ma?a?b?a?r?t??/ is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Rāmāya?a!.
With more than 74,000 verses, long prose passages, and about 1!.8 million words in total, the Mahābhārata is one of the longest epic poems in the world!.[1] Including the Hariva??a, the Mahabharata has a total length of more than 90,000 verses!.
It is of immense importance to the culture of the Indian subcontinent, and is a major text of Hinduism!. Its discussion of human goals (artha or purpose, kāma or pleasure, dharma or duty, and moksha or liberation) takes place in a long-standing tradition, attempting to explain the relationship of the individual to society and the world (the nature of the 'Self') and the workings of karma!.
The title may be translated as "the great tale of the Bhārata Dynasty", according to the Mahābhārata's own testimony extended from a shorter version simply called Bhārata of 24,000 verses[2] The epic is part of the Hindu itihāsa, literally "that which happened", which includes the Ramayana but not the Purā?as!.
Traditionally, Hindus ascribe the authorship of the Mahābhārata to Vyasa!. Because of its immense length, its philological study has a long history of attempts to unravel its historical growth and composition layers!. Its earliest layers date back to the late Vedic period (ca!. 5th c!. BC) and it probably reached its final form in the early Gupta period (ca!. 4th c!. AD)!.

The historicity of the Mahabharata war is unclear!. The epic's setting certainly has an historical precedent in Vedic India, where the Kuru kingdom was the center of political power in the late 2nd and early 1st millennia B!.C!.[11] A dynastic conflict of the period could have been the inspiration for the Jaya, the core on which the Mahabharata corpus was built, with a climactic battle eventually coming to be viewed as an epochal event!. Dating this conflict relies almost exclusively on textual materials in the Mahabaharata itself and associated genealogical lists in the later Puranic literature!.
The evidence of the Puranas is of two kinds!. Of the first kind, there is the direct statement that there were 1015 (or 1050) years between the birth of Parikshita (Arjuna's grandson) and the accession of Mahapadma Nanda, commonly dated to 382 B!.C!., which would yield an estimate of about 1400 B!.C!. for the Bharata battle!.[12] However, this would imply improbably long reigns on average for the kings listed in the genealogies!.[13] Of the second kind are analyses of parallel genealogies in the Puranas between the times of Adhisimakrishna (Parikshita's great-grandson) and Mahapadma Nanda!. Pargiter accordingly estimated 26 generations by averaging 10 different dynastic lists and, assuming 18 years for the average duration of a reign, arrived at an estimate of 850 B!.C!. for Adhisimakrishna, and thus approximately 950 B!.C!. for the Bharata battle!.[14] B!. B!. Lal used the same approach with a more conservative assumption of the average reign to estimate a date of 836 B!.C!., and correlated this with archaeological evidence from Painted Grey Ware sites, the association being strong between PGW artifacts and places mentioned in the epic!.[15]
Attempts to date the events using methods of archaeoastronomy have produced, depending on which passages are chosen and how they are interpreted, estimates ranging from the late 4th to the mid 2nd millennium B!.C!.[16] The late 4th millennium date has a precedent in the calculation of the Kaliyuga epoch, based on planetary conjunctions, by Aryabhata (6th century)!. His date of February 18th 3102 B!.C!. has become widespread in Indian tradition (for example, the Aihole inscription of Pulikeshi II, dated to Saka 556 = 634 A!.D!., claims that 3735 years have elapsed since the Bharata battle!.[17]) Another traditional school of astronomers and historians, represented by Vriddha-Garga, Varahamihira (author of the Brhatsamhita) and Kalhana (author of the Rajatarangini), place the Bharata war 653 years after the Kaliyuga epoch, corresponding to 2449 B!.C!.[18]
In discussing the dating questions historian A!. L!. Basham says:
"According to the most popular later tradition the Mahabharata War took place in 3102 B!.C!., which in the light of all evidence, is quite impossible!. More reasonable is another tradition, placing it in the 15th century B!.C!., but this is also several centuries too early in the light of our archaeological knowledge!. Probably the war took place around the beginning of the 9th century B!.C!.; such a date seems to fit well with the scanty archaeological remains of the period, and there is some evidence in the Brahmana literature itself to show that it cannot have been much earlier!."[19]Www@QuestionHome@Com

The Mahābhārata s one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Rāmāya?a!.

With more than 74,000 verses, long prose passages, and about 1!.8 million words in total, the Mahābhārata is one of the longest epic poems in the world!.[1] Including the Hariva??a, the Mahabharata has a total length of more than 90,000 verses!.

It is usually thought that the full length of the Mahabharata has accreted over a long period!. The Mahabharata itself (1!.1!.61) distinguishes a core portion of 24,000 verses, the Bharata proper, as opposed to additional secondary material, while the Ashvalayana Grhyasutra (3!.4!.4) makes a similar distinction!. According to the Adi-parva of the Mahabharata (shlokas 81, 101-102), the text was originally 8,800 verses when it was composed by Vyasa and was known as the Jaya (Victory), which later became 24,000 verses in the Bharata recited by Vaisampayana, and finally over 90,000 verses in the Mahabharata recited by Ugrasravas!.Www@QuestionHome@Com